Rebecca Ginsburg Knihy

The tree-lined streets of South African suburbia, while seemingly peaceful, were not immune to the racial tensions of apartheid's oppressive years. Rebecca Ginsburg offers an intimate exploration of Johannesburg's middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods during the peak of apartheid (c. 1960-1975), integrating recent scholarship on gender, home, and family dynamics. Within these homes, significant contests unfolded between white privilege and black aspiration, particularly through the interactions between white, predominantly female householders and their black domestic workers, also mainly women. These domestic negotiations reflected broader societal struggles over territory and power. Ginsburg highlights the unique social and racial geographies created by the workers' separate living quarters, designed to complement the main residences. Johannesburg's suburbs featured a variety of architectural styles, yet what set them apart from similar neighborhoods in the U.S. or U.K. was the presence of back rooms occupied by African women in otherwise white areas. Conducting over seventy-five personal interviews, Ginsburg's methodology distinguishes her work from other architectural histories. She also incorporates plans, drawings, and on-site analyses. Addressing themes across South African and architectural history, feminist studies, and psychology, the book's engaging narrative and powerful oral histories vividly bring to life