White Rising: The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killing in South Africa

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 organization and activities, the hopes and fears, of ordinary people, the book analyzes 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.