’’Africa Forms the Key’’: Alex Du Toit and the History of Continental Drift

1 ’In the Beginning’: Geology in South Africa and the Early Years of Alex Du Toit2 ’A World in a Grain of Sand’: A Brief History of Geology and the Origins of Continental Drift Theory3 ’Bedrock’: Geology and the Shaping of a Nation4 ’On the Shoulders of Giants’: Early Drift Theorists5 ’Looking through... the Keyhole of Nature’: Du Toit and Early Continental Drift6 ’And Yet It Moves’: Du Toit’s South American Journey7 ’The Cradle of Humankind’: A Pivotal Decade for Science in South Africa8 ’A Frozen History of the Past’: Antarctica, Gondwana and an Unfulfilled Dream9 ’Our Wandering Continents’: Du Toit’s Definitive Work, Controversy and Consensus10 ’Pale Blue Dot’: Conclusions

Suryakanthie Chetty is Senior Lecturer in History at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her current research interests are in the history of science, specifically geology. She has published in Historia, the African Historical Review, Kronos: South African Histories, the Journal of Natal and Zulu History and the South African Historical Journal.