As the memory of apartheid recedes it becomes ever harder to capture what philosopher Hannah Arendt might have described as its appearance of normality – which is not to deny in any sense that it was a cruel and destructive system which has left a deeply ingrained legacy of bitterness and harm in its wake. But, how was it that so many people who thought of themselves as just and decent citizens subscribed to the ideas of apartheid, and believed that it was the only way in which South Africa’s many diverse ‘communities’ could live in harmony?’ Cynthia Kros’s study tracks the intellectual development of one of apartheid’s deftest ideologues, W. W. M. Eiselen, exploring how the seeds of separate development were sown in at least one quarter of apartheid’s toxic fields, and the conditions under which they began to take root. The book opens with a location of the topic within the literature on apartheid and Bantu Education, and goes on to examine the shaping of Eiselen’s discourse over several stages of his career before he entered politics. Later chapters explore the world of the 1940s, emphasising both the upheavals and the sense of possibilities that were its defining characteristics. The study concludes with an examination of the context, procedures, and finally the Report, of the Eiselen Commission.