Academic Profiles

Prof Alex Mouton

College of Human Sciences
School of Humanities
Department: History
Professor
Tel: 012 429 6457
Fax: 012 429 3221
E-mail: moutofa@unisa.ac.za

Qualifications

  • MA (University of Pretoria, 1985)
  • PhD  (University of Pretoria, 1990)

NRF Rating

C3

Fields of academic interests

  • South African liberalism
  • The Afrikaans press in the apartheid era

Field of Specialisation

  • South African political biography

Books

  • Voices in the Desert: Margaret and William Ballinger: A Biography (Pretoria: Benedic Books, 1997)
  • Voorloper: Die Lewe van Schalk Pienaar (Kaapstad: Tafelberg - Uitgewers Beperk, 2002)
  • Prophet without Honour. F.S. Malan: Afrikaner, South African and Cape Liberal (Protea Book House, 2011)
  • (Editor) History, Historians and Afrikaner nationalism: Essays on the History Department of the University of Pretoria, 1909-1985 (Kleio Publishers, 2007)
  • Iron in the Soul. The Leaders of the Official Parliamentary Opposition in South Africa, 1910-1993 (Protea Book House, 2017)
  • The Opportunist: The political Life of Oswald Pirow, 1915-1959 (Protea Book House, 2021)

Journal articles

  • (with N Southey) ‘A Volksvreemde Historian: JAI Agar-Hamilton and the Production of History in an Alien Environment’, South African Historical Journal, 44, 2001, pp.72-98.
  • ‘“Personifying the Coloured Community”: Sonny Leon and the Ambiguities of the Politics of Cooption and Resistance in the Apartheid State’, Kleio, 34, 2002, pp.28-48.
  • '"Angry Young Men' : FA van Jaarsveld, TS van Rooyen and the Afrikaner Historiographical Polemic of 1953-1955', Historia, 49 (2), 2004, pp.167-185.
  • ‘Staying within Hearing Distance’: Max du Preez, Schalk Pienaar and the Afrikaans Press in the Apartheid Era', Joernaal vir Eietydse Geskiedenis/ Journal for Contemporary History, 30, 1, 2005, pp.85-102.  
  •  ‘A Free and United South Africa under the Union Jack’: FS Malan, South Africanism and the British Empire, 1895 - 1924', Historia, 51, 1, 2006, pp.29-48.
  • ‘The Burden of Empathy’: John X Merriman, FS Malan and Phyllis Lewsen’s Quest for Biographical Authenticity', South African Historical Journal, 55, 2006, pp.124-141.
  • ‘History, Historians and Autobiography’: A South African Case Study’, African Historical Review, 39, 1, 2007, pp.59-79.
  • ‘Going against the Creator’: F.S Malan, Cape Liberalism and White Supremacy in South Africa, 1895 – 1936', Joernaal vir Eietydse Geskiedenis/ Journal for Contemporary History, 32, 2, 2007, pp.144-163.
  • ‘R V Malan (1901): Politics, Justice and the South African War, 1899-1902’, Fundamina: A Journal of Legal History, 15, 1, 2009, pp.139-154.
  • ‘“The Freedom of Conscience”: Senator FS Malan and the Johannes Du Plessis Heresy Case, 1928-1932’, Ned Geref Teologiese Tydskrif, 50, 1&2, 2009, pp.434-443.
  • ‘“Great and Lasting Service to this Country”: Sir Leander Starr Jameson, Conciliation and the Unionist Party, 1910-1912’, TD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 7, 2, December 2011, pp.167-184. 
  • ‘“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”: Professional Historians and Political Biography of South African Parliamentary Politics, 1910-1990’, Joernaal vir Eietydse Geskiedenis/Journal for Contemporary History, 36, 1, 2011, pp.57-74.
  • ‘“The Sacred Tie”: Sir Thomas Smartt, the Unionist Party and the British Empire, 1912–1920’, Historia, 57, 2, 2012, pp. 1-30.
  • ‘“Dr No”: A.P. Treurnicht and the Ultra-Conservative Quest to Maintain Afrikaner Supremacy, 1982-1993’, South African Historical Journal, 65, 4, 2013, pp.577-595.
  • ‘“A Decent Man, but not very Popular”: JGN Strauss, the United Party and the Founding of the Apartheid State, 1950-1956’, Journal of Contemporary History, 38, 20, December 2013, pp.1-20.
  • ‘“No Prime Minister could want a Better Leader of the Opposition”: Sir de Villiers Graaff, the United Party and the Apartheid state, 1956-1977’, African Historical Review, 46, 1, 2014, pp. 48-69.
  • ‘Had it too easy’: Frederik van Zyl Slabbert’s Resignation as Leader of the Official Parliamentary Opposition, Historia, 60, 2, 2015, pp.68-86.
  • ‘One of the Architects of our Democracy’: Colin Eglin, the Progressive Federal Party and the Leadership of the Official Parliamentary Opposition, 1977-1979 and 1986-1987, Journal for Contemporary History, 40 (1), 2015, pp.1-22.
  • ' "Fascist or opportunist?": The Political Career of Oswald Pirow, 1915-1943', Historia, 63 (2), 2018, pp.93-111.
  • ' "Beyond the pale": Oswald Pirow, Sir Oswald Moosley, the "enemies of the Soviet Union" and apartheid, 1948-1959', Journal for Contemporary History, 43 (2), 2018, pp.15-32.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Rated as an established researcher (C3) by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF)