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A Very Strange Society: A Journey to the Heart of South Africa

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It is difficult for many to remember the strange world of South Africa decades ago when Allen Drury risked his life researching an institution few outside of that nation understood. His insights into how fear and misunderstanding -- and the unquestioning acceptance of what is publicly espoused as "right" and "normal" -- can drive otherwise decent human beings into committing -- and perpetuating -- unspeakable injustices.

The South Africa of today is, thank God, quite different from the one Drury studied so thoroughly and wrote about so movingly. I wish he were alive today to compare the two, for it is clear from his writing that he loved the country.

However, this book is more than a history of a specific time and place. There is always in the human soul the potential for unthinking hatred, as doubt and misunderstanding can be too quickly calcified into bigotry. Individual and institutional oppression come far to easily to all of us. For that reason it is good to have books like A Very Strange Society -- and commentators like Allen Drury -- to show us the image of what could be and help us to turn away from what too often has already been.