White Rising: Insurrection and Racial Killing in South Africa - Hardcover

Krikler, Jeremy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719068444 ISBN 13: 9780719068447

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2005

Synopsis

In the summer of 1922, the heart of South Africa was wracked by industrial strife, racial killing and insurrection. This book reconstructs the extraordinary events of that year - the year of the Rand Revolt. Through an examination of the organisation and activities, the hopes and fears, of ordinary people, the book analyses the sources of rebellion and racial killing. It explores what white men and women invested in their racial identity, and how this was destabilized by threats to their livelihoods and sense of citizenship. The consequences were brutal, even pathological. White Rising immerses the reader in tragic and dramatic times, when workers rose against their employers and the state, and when black people were hunted through the streets.

Engaging and forcefully written, this book powerfully illuminates the Rand Revolt. It will appeal to those interested in twentieth century South Africa and to those seeking to understand racial violence and identity.

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About this title

About the Author

Jeremy Krikler is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of History at the University of Essex -- .

From the Inside Flap

Racial murder and rebellion lie at the heart of this book. It focuses on South Africa's 'Rand Revolt' of 1922, when Johannesburg and its surrounding towns were wracked by industrial strife, racial violence and insurrection. White workers rose against their employers and the State, black people were hunted through the streets, and strikers launched an onslaught upon police and the army. Krikler recreates this world of intense conflict and analyses the sources and complex nature of its extreme passions. The book suggests novel ways at looking at racial identity and violence, and breaks new ground in other areas - for example, in its assessment of the impact of the first world war on labour movements, and in its exploration of the significance of female violence during the upheaval.

Written with panache and a determination to explore deeper meanings, the book has wide implications for our understanding of race and class in South Africa and elsewhere. It also offers the most vivid portrayal of a rebellion - with all its cruelty, heroism, drama and pathos.

"An animated and provocative study, rooted in real people and memorable incidents, with a compelling narrative style and including copius illustrations. An outstanding work which promises to be the definitive study of the 1922 rising."
Deborah Gaitskell, Editor, Journal of Southern African Studies

This is an epic history of an epic event. There's a complexity, maturity, and profundity in the writing, a rare eye for detail, voice,and incident, that makes it a major history with the very widest implications. Ambitious, important, and rich with global resonances, it is altogether a tour de force."
Professor Vic Gatrell, Fellow of Cauis College Cambridge, and author of the Hanging Tree

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719068444
• ISBN 13: 9780719068447
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 424