 He is well known for his work on the formation of the Union of South Africa and the two-volume "The Oxford History of South Africa", a collaboration with N.M.Wilson., and has written and edited many books, including "The Political Mythology of Apartheid", "The Frontier in History" (with Howard Lamar), "A History of South Africa", and "South African Politics" (with Andrew Prior), all published by Yale University Press.Born in England in 1916, Thompson was educated in both England and South Africa, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University from 1937 to 1939.