Introduction

Abstract

‘The fate of books’, wrote Terentianus Marus in ad 200 ‘depends on the capacity of the reader.’ By this I take it that he meant that some books are hardly ever read, some are read and quickly forgotten, while others create so many resonances for their readers that they survive the vagaries of time and fashion. R. W. Johnson’s book How Long Will South Africa Survive? was one of the latter.¹ Of course, these resonances derive from many sources — fine prose, illuminating insight and convincing argument among them. Johnson’s reviewers found none of these. Many criticised the lack of documentation and citation that could have made his argument more persuasive. They found the style rather journalistic and the insights too few.² But the general theme of a book can also give it influence, so that its resonances are to be found in its association with a recurring issue which is of continuing importance. There can be few topics of such universal interest as the survival of apartheid in South Africa, and Johnson’s book was the first directly to address this theme, and in many people’s minds has been associated with it ever since.