• Tearing up the post-war settlement

    IN a modest personal archive I have two particularly prized documents: a British national identity card (discontinued 1952) and a ration book (food rationing ended in July 1954). But as a product of the post-1945 […]

     
  • Conspiracy theory and truth

    THE beginning of each year raises the prospect of anniversaries, commemoration and appropriate reflection. Amongst many, this one will see the centenary of the sinking of the Mendi (21 February), the fortieth anniversary of the […]

     
  • The present as a mirror of the past

    BOOKS on South Africa’s recent history continue to roll off keyboards and printing presses, including a recent spate of memoirs and analyses of Mkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress […]