Introduction: states, markets, and inequality -- South African society on the eve of apartheid -- Social change and income inequality under apartheid -- Apartheid as a distributional regime -- The rise of unemployment under apartheid -- Income inequality at apartheid's end -- Social stratification and income inequality at the end of apartheid -- Did the unemployed constitute an underclass? -- Income inequality after apartheid -- The post-apartheid distributional regime -- Transforming the distributional regime.