The Diamond Jubilee of the University in 1982 was marked by the publication of Professor Bruce Murray’s Wits: The Early Years: A History of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and its Precursors 1896–1939. It was a fascinating ‘warts and all’ chronicle of Wits’s evolution from a tiny school of mines in Kimberley through phases as a technical institute and a university college to the achievement of university status in 1922. Set against the backdrop of Johannesburg’s development from rough mining town to city, it was no mere chronological account but rather a highly professional history that also managed to be eminently readable.

The success of Wits: The Early Years made it obvious that Professor Murray should be prevailed upon to produce the next instalment of the University’s official history, and moreover that its publication should be a major feature of Wits’s 75th Anniversary celebrations in 1997. The University is fortunate indeed that he agreed to do so.

The work that he has produced (with chapters by Professor Alf Stadler and Jonty Winch) is a fitting sequel to his first volume. He has not been content to rely only on the extensive archival material that was available to him. He has lost no opportunity to dredge the memories of former students and members of staff. The result is a fascinating account of Wits, warts once again in plain sight, during the momentous two decades from the outbreak of the Second World War to the passing of the notorious Extension of University Education Act in 1959.

The book will have wide appeal, not only to Wits alumni but to all who are concerned with South African higher education and its history.