Die laaste Afrikaner-leiers: 'n Opperste toets van mag Author: Herman Giliomee
Die Laaste Afrikaner-Leiers: 'n Opperste Toets van Mag (Collectible Provenance Association Copy)
A Monumental Historical Chronicle of the Apartheid State's Final Custodians, Featuring a Deeply Personal Inner-Circle Family Provenance
A Monumental Historical Chronicle of the Apartheid State's Final Custodians, Featuring a Deeply Personal Inner-Circle Family Provenance
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Die laaste Afrikaner-leiers: 'n Opperste toets van mag
- Author: Herman Giliomee
- Publisher: Tafelberg-Uitgewers, Cape Town
- Publication Date: 2012 / 2013
- ISBN-13: 9780624052555
- Edition Details: Early Printing / Standard Hardcover Release. Highly unique, unmatched association copy featuring multiple layers of direct historical provenance.
- Binding: Original publisher's premium illustrated card wrappers (gatefold softcover / trade paperback format).
- Physical Format: Large Octavo (8vo), 460 pages. Enriched with comparative political tables, comprehensive reference indices, and detailed archival data mapping out the constitutional transition.
- Language: Afrikaans
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Wraps: The illustrated card covers are exceptionally bright, flat, and structurally crisp. The spine remains solid, uncreased, and unbroken, showing only negligible storage rubbing at the extreme corner tips.
- Interior: The internal text block is beautifully bound, clean, and tight. The pages are immaculate and free of general reader underlining, text highlighting, dog-ears, or bookplates.
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Provenance & Inscriptions: The title page bears two remarkable, highly collectible historical signatures and gift inscriptions that tie the volume directly to the inner sanctum of South Africa’s transition era:
- Primary Author Inscription: Written in the crisp hand of the author: “Aan Lucia. Vir jou ter herinnering van die wyse waarop Gerrit die oop gesprekke beoefen het. Herman Giliomee.”
- Secondary Family Inscription: Written directly underneath by the recipient in a different hand: “An Ma. Sonder jou sou ek en die kinders nooit die voorreg gehad het om vir Gerrit te kon hê nie. Baie dankie! Lucia.”
Special Bibliographic Discovery: Unpacking the Provenance
This copy represents a profound, high-value association link directly connected to Dr. Gerrit Viljoen (1926–2009), the former head of the Afrikaner Broederbond, Rector of Rand Afrikaans University, and Minister of Constitutional Development under F.W. de Klerk. Dr. Viljoen was a crucial "verligte" (progressive) negotiator who laid the early structural groundwork for the country's democratic transition before retiring due to ill health in 1992.
- The Author's Note: Herman Giliomee addresses the book to Lucia Viljoen, Gerrit Viljoen’s daughter, as a tribute to her late father’s legacy of open engagement ("oop gesprekke").
- The Daughter's Note: Lucia subsequently gifted this exact copy to her mother, Magdalene Viljoen ("Ma", Maria Magdalena van der Merwe), acknowledging with intense gratitude the family's shared life with Gerrit. This intimate exchange turns this volume into an irreplaceable artifact of political and personal history, tracing straight to one of the primary figures analyzed within the book's pages.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Die Laaste Afrikaner-Leiers is Herman Giliomee’s definitive masterwork exploring the final decades of minority rule in South Africa. Rather than offering a standard retrospective critique, Giliomee meticulously charts the political strategy, internal ideological rifts, and agonizing decisions faced by leadership figures from D.F. Malan to F.W. de Klerk. He pays distinct focus to the "verligte" inner circle—specifically highlighting figures like Gerrit Viljoen—who transitioned from defending ethnic nationalism to engaging in the monumental compromises that avoided a total civil war. It is a vital text for understanding the backroom deals, intelligence briefings, and psychological hurdles that forged modern democratic South Africa.
Author Profile: Herman Giliomee
Herman Giliomee is one of South Africa’s most distinguished historians, political analysts, and academics. A former professor of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town and past president of the South African Institute of Race Relations, Giliomee achieved global renown for his seminal work The Afrikaners: Biography of a People. Renowned for his unparalleled access to private political archives and personal diaries of state leaders, his writing stands out for its objective, rigorous structural analysis of corporate Afrikaner power dynamics.
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