The Anxieties of White Supremacy : Hendrik Verwoerd and the Apartheid Mindset

Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd (1958–1966) is widely regarded as the mastermind of apartheid in South Africa. This study examines how he developed the ideology of racial separation into a comprehensive system. It also looks into Verwoerd’s intellectual development and his academic career before he entered politics. Apartheid was to Verwoerd less a defense of colonialism but a policy for the future, he was an authoritarian modernizer and a true representative of the Age of Extremes. Contents Abbreviations Introduction Principles Sharpened Thoughts – Blunted Feelings Trajectories From Sociology to Social Policy Propaganda Organised Unity of the “Volk” Chaos and Order Difference and Purity Apartheid Knowledge and Epistemologies of Ignorance – Justifications of Apartheid from the Human Sciences ‘Homelands’ Repression and Control Modernisation The Breath of Death Conclusion Bibliography Literature Name Index Location Index Subject Index