There is no room for apologia when writing the histories of a racist society like apartheid South Africa. The histories I relate in 'Ordinary Whites' remind us of the self-absorption that shaped white everyday life and also the pervasive ways in which ordinary white people were policed and bound into apartheid society. It held whites captive through economic interests and privilege.

Several years ago, I was invited to deliver a talk on aspects of South African history to a group of white retirees in Bloemfontein. I thought that the social history of ordinary white people in South Africa in the 1950s to 1970s might be of interest to an audience who had lived and worked under apartheid, and witnessed the negotiated settlement in 1994, that this would present them with connection points to the past, and a historical commons for telling and sharing stories of their own.

How wrong I was. When I put my idea to the conveners of the talk, some showed signs of discomfort while others were openly hostile. The chairperson, a retired professor from the local university, asked if I could not instead speak of something "apolitical" like the history of the ANC.

I proposed a compromise where I would talk on the social history movement in South Africa. This allowed me to address some of the less well-known episodes in the history of working-class and other non-elite whites. I repeat some of these "apartheid secrets" in my book, Ordinary Whites in Apartheid Society, drawing on my own roots in a poorer working class white family...