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Allison Drew, White Rising: The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killing in South Africa, The English Historical Review, Volume CXXI, Issue 494, December 2006, Pages 1486–1489, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cel311
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THIS fascinating study of South Africa's 1922 Rand Revolt is ground-breaking in several respects. Most studies of South African labour history have used structural Marxist or neo-Marxist approaches that attempt to understand the behaviour of the white working class in terms of its position in the labour hierarchy. Unlike those studies, Krikler's analysis focuses on consciousness and agency. It is the first study to examine the impact of the First World War on worker consciousness and militancy; the first study to explore the significant role of women in the Rand Revolt; and the first study to analyse the racially-motivated killings of black South Africans during the revolt.
The Rand Revolt capped more than a decade of militant labour struggles by both white and black mineworkers for better pay and conditions. Mining was a dangerous occupation in South Africa. Unsafe work conditions and the ravages of silicosis or phthisis led to an unusually high mortality rate. Most of the early white miners from overseas died of silicosis, at an average age of thirty-five.
