Ranging from economics, psychology, a spurious rebuttal of evolution to a substantial revisionist history, and the perils of the ‘machine age’, the ten lectures (originally published in 1932) includes leading intellectuals and academics of the day, notably Jan Smuts, Robert Broom and R.F.A. Hoernlé.

Johannesburg was still a brash mining town, better known for the production of wealth than knowledge, and the University of the Witwatersrand a mere ten years old when, in 1932, these ten lectures were delivered under the auspices of the University Philosophical Society. They portrayed the ideas of the university’s leading academics of the day, and the programme of lectures reveals a studied effort to introduce an element of bipartisan political representation between English and Afrikaner in South Africa by including Wits’ first principal, Jan Hofmeyr, and politician, D.F. Malan, as discussion chairs. Yet, no black intellectuals were represented and, indeed, the politics of racial segregation bursts through the text only in a few of the contributions. For the most part, race is alluded to only in passing.

As Saul Dubow explains in his new introduction to this re-issue of the lectures, Our Changing World-View</em> was an occasion for Wits’ leading faculty members to position the young university as a mature institution with a leadership role in public affairs. Above all, it was a means to project the university as a research as well as a teaching institution, led by a vigorous and ambitious cohort of liberal-minded intellectuals. That all were male and white will be immediately apparent to readers of this reissued volume. Ranging from economics, psychology, a spurious rebuttal of evolution to a substantial revisionist history and the perils of the ‘machine age’, this book is a sombre reflection of intellectual history and the academy’s role in promulgating political and social divisions in South Africa.

Introduction – Saul Dubow
Preface – H. R. Raikes
Chapter 1 Some Recent Scientific Advances in their Bearing on Philosophy – Lieut.-General the Right Honourable J. C. Smuts
Chapter 2 The Material World—Yesterday and Today – Professor J. P. Dalton
Chapter 3 Evolution—Design or Accident? – Dr. Robert Broom
Chapter 4 Man at the Crossroads – Professor John F. V. Phillips
Chapter 5 Psychology in Perspective – Mr. I. D. MacCrone
Chapter 6 Literature in the Machine Age – Professor J. Y. T. Greig
Chapter 7 The Holistic Attitude in Education – Professor T. J. Haarhoff
Chapter 8 Our Changing Economic World – Professor C. S. Richards
Chapter 9 Africa in the Re-Making – Professor S. H. Frankel
Chapter 10 Old Truths and New Discoveries – Professor R. F. Alfred Hoernlé