Robert Ross received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1974 and has worked since then at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He has written several books, including A Concise History of South Africa and Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony: A Tragedy of Manners, both published by Cambridge University Press. He is also the editor, with Anne Kelk Mager and Bill Nasson, of the two-volume series The Cambridge History of South Africa.