The first edition of this book was hailed as a major reinterpretation of South African history. It criticised the prevailing view that African agriculture was primitive or backward, and attacked the notion that poverty and lack of development were a result of 'traditionalism'. Bundy's work introduced the idea that by the late nineteenth and early twentieth century capitalist development in South Africa was increasingly hostile to peasant producers and a massive onslaught was launched against them - the understanding of this was vital to an understanding of both the South African past and present.