Paging through History

Verdi was writing operas, Gustave Flaubert was outraging the French with his classic novel Madame Bovary, and Indian militants were rising against the British in bloody revolt. In their book-lined studies in England, Karl Marx and Charles Darwin were working at texts that would change the mindset of the 20th century, and, in America, the northern and southern states were squaring up for a devastating civil war. The year was 1857. In Cape Town, with its muddy, smelly streets and weekly horse races on the Wynberg road, colonial progress - the need for a harbour, the prospect of railways - were the big topics of discussion. These, and expectations of a new war on the eastern frontier as the grim effects of the cattle-killing spread, were the news stories of the day. Into this setting, Bryan Henry Darnell and Richard William Murray introduced yet another newspaper - the fourth in the port city - that would outlast all its competitors. 'Quod verum tutum,' they wrote, 'shall be our motto and let those who feel safe in truth support us in acting upon it.' So the Cape Argus was born. In Paging through History, the newspaper celebrates 150 years of liberal journalism in the city, not without introspection and self-criticism. The title makes substantial use of original material that illuminates the historic salients and the revealing minutiae that tell the story of the long dialogue between the evolving metropolis and its oldest newspaper.