Whites Writing Whiteness
Minerals Revolution, Kimberley, Jo’burg – Introductory Reading List
Recommended key reading is indicated with ** against author names
A. USEFUL BACKGROUND READING
Richard Elphick & Hermann Giliomee (eds 1988) The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840 Middletown, Con: Wesleyan University Press. (This outstanding collection covers economy and society in the period before the mineral revolution. A good few of the contents are important reading; alas there is no parallel collection for the period after 1840.)
Rodney Davenport & Christopher Saunders (5th edition 2000, or later) South Africa: A Modern History Basingstoke: Macmillan (Outstanding, thorough and compendious textbook. To be used for dipping into, rather than necessarily sitting down and reading cover to cover.)
**Alan Lester, Etienne Nel & Tony Binns (2000) South Africa Past, Present and Future Harlow: Pearson Education (The Introduction and Conclusion are helpfully succinct in putting across their key ideas. Sees the economy and its transitions as the key driver of change. Very helpful discussion)
B. STARTING READING ON KIMBERLEY AND JOHANNESBURG
Jonathan Crush, Alan Jeeves & David Yudelman (1991) South Africa’s Labor Empire Boulder, Col: Westview Press. (On migrant labour on the Rand.)
**Duncan Innes (1984) Anglo American and the Rose of Modern South Africa New York: Monthly Review Press (Excellent detailed investigation of the role of Anglo American companies in the corporate life of South Africa up to the 1980s; much still holds true.)
Shula Marks & Anthony Atmore (eds, 1980) Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa London: Longman. (Some important and very readable chapters in this.)
**Shula Marks & Richard Rathbone (eds, 1982) Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa London: Longman. (Some important and very readable chapters in this.)
T. Dunbar Moodie (1994) Going For Gold: Men, Mines and Migration Berkeley: University of California Press. (As the title indicates.)
**Brian Roberts (1976) Kimberley, Turbulent City Cape Town: David Philip. (A very good read, and an important one too.)
**Charles Van Onselen (1982) New Babylon, New Nineveh: Everyday Life on the Witwatersrand 1886-1914 Cape Town: David Philip. (Magnificent, essential and a very good read.)
Robert V. Turrell (1987) Capital and Labour on the Kimberley Diamond Fields 1871-1890 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (As the title indicates.)
Geoffrey Wheatcroft (1985) The Randlords: The Men Who Made South Africa London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. (Focuses on people and their actions, a good read.)
William Worger (1987) South Africa’s City of Diamonds Yale University Press. (Kimberley with the focus on the details of labour organisation.)
David Yudelman (1984) The Emergence of Modern South Africa Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. (Overview of economy and state over long period; a good read, a largely still convincing argument.)
SOME USEFUL JOURNALS
J African Studies
J Commonwealth & Imperial History
J Southern African Studies
South African Historical Journal
South African Review of Sociology
Last updated: 20 December 2014
