Wits, the "Open" Years

In the period between the outbreak of World War II and the enactment of the Extension of University Education Act in 1959, which established the system of apartheid, the University of Witwatersrand became known as an "open university". This second volume of the history of Wits covers that period. Its focus is more political than that of the first volume with its central theme the extent to which the university in fact became "open" and the defence it mounted to preserve its "open" status in the face of the challenge posed after 1949 by the Nationalist Government and its policies.