Without much fanfare Ahmed Kathrada worked alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other giants in the struggle to end racial discrimination in South Africa. He faced house arrest and many court trials related to his activism until, finally, a trial for sabotage saw him sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Mandela and six others.

Conversations with a Gentle Soul has its origins in a series of discussions between Kathrada and Sahm Venter about his opinions, encounters and experiences. Throughout his life, Kathrada has refused to hang on to negative emotions such as hatred and bitterness. Instead, he radiates contentment and the openness of a man at peace with himself. His wisdom is packaged within layers of optimism, mischievousness and humour, and he provides insights that are of value to all South Africans.

Africa's leading producer of electricity, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, is also a vertically integrated monopoly, owned by the South African state. This national champion was shaken in 2008, when it was obliged to introduce 'load shedding', or rolling blackouts, and again in late 2014. Trying to understand how and why one of the iconic pillars of South African state capitalism is now in distress, the authors of this book argue that the so-called electricity crisis is in fact a public monopoly crisis.

Moving beyond technical aspects, they explore the relationship between state power and Eskom before, during and after apartheid. From this perspective, they suggest that the current technical and financial troubles of this public utility are illustrative of the weakening of its technopolitical regime, of how national institutions have governed Eskom's technological development, and of the pursuit of political goals in the production of electrical power. Without a clear industrial strategy during the 2000s, Eskom became a powerful tool of Broad-Black Economic Empowerment as well as a neopatrimonial system which generates profits captured by the ruling party. As a result, crisis in Eskom shakes the whole political edifice. Inefficient and its finances increasingly under scrutiny, this state-owned enterprise's existence as a monopolistic public utility is regularly a subject of debate.

The authors discuss the ambivalent role of Eskom in the national energy transition policy and whether solutions point in the direction of de-integrating this public monopoly and allowing its current technopolitical regime to enter a planned or natural decline.

Africa is forever on our TV screens, but the bad-news stories massively outweigh the good. Ever since the process of decolonisation began in the mid-1950s, and arguably before, the continent has appeared to be stuck in a process of irreversible decline.

How did we get here? What, if anything, is to be done?

Fully revised and updated and weaving together the key stories and characters of the last sixty years into a stunningly compelling and coherent narrative, Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European ideas of how to organise 10 000 different ethnic groups has led to what British prime minister Tony Blair described as the ‘scar on the conscience of the world’.

Authoritative, provocative, and consistently fascinating, this is the seminal book on one of the most important issues facing the West today

This detailed Handbook to the Iron Age covers the last 2,000 years in Southern Africa.

The first part of the book outlines essential topics such as settlement organization, stonewalled patterns, ritual residues, long-distance trade, and ancient mining. Part two presents a comprehensive culture-history sequence through ceramic analyses, showing distributions, stylistic types, and characteristic pieces. The final section reviews and updates the main debates about black prehistory, including migration vs. diffusion, the role of cattle, the origins of Mapungubwe, the rise and fall of Great Zimbabwe, as well as the archaeology of the Venda, the Sotho-Tswana, and the Nguni speakers.

Handbook to the Iron Age is an abundantly illustrated study that is accessible to a wide range of people interested in African prehistory.

This riveting study shows how the intersection of technology and politics has shaped South African history since the 1960s.

It is impossible to understand South Africa’s energy crisis without knowing this history. Faeeza Ballim’s deeply researched book challenges many prevailing assumptions and beliefs made regarding the crisis.

The book highlights the importance of technology to our understanding of South African history and challenges the idea that the technological state corporations were proxies for the apartheid government. While a part of the broader national modernization project under apartheid, these corporations also set the stage for worker solidarity and trade union organization in the Waterberg and elsewhere in the country.

Faeeza Ballim argues that the state corporations, their technology, and their engineers enjoyed ambivalent relationships with the governments of their time. And in the democratic era, while Eskom has been caught up in the scourge of government corruption, it has retained a degree of organizational autonomy and offered a degree of resistance to those who were attempting further corrupt practices.

The book takes an in-depth look at the East Coast Main Line-King's Cross to Edinburgh-between 1939 and 1959. This is carried out in a series of chapters. In the first one a picture is painted of the state of the network in the late 1930s. It is followed by an account of the historical context of the changes on the ECML over the subject years. This includes wartime 1939-1945 and the fortunes of British Railways in the post-war period until the end of the 1950s; then follows an account of passenger services on the ECML in the summer of 1939 and in the war and changes thereafter. Towards the end of the book there are smaller chapters of specific interest. Amongst these are military and other government installations served by the ECML during WWII; specific wartime locomotive workings; the impact of war on the ECML at various locations along the line; accidents on the ECML September-December 1959 and snow and floods on the ECML in the 1940s and 1950s. The period covered is a crucial one in the history of the line and it is presented in an erudite yet readable manner.

'A very readable history of the British way of life viewed through its homes' Choice Magazine In recent years house histories have become the new frontier of popular, participatory history. People, many of whom have already embarked upon that great adventure of genealogical research, and who have encountered their ancestors in the archives and uncovered family secrets, are now turning to the secrets contained within the four walls of their homes and in doing so finding a direct link to earlier generations. And it is ordinary homes, not grand public buildings or the mansions of the rich, that have all the best stories. As with the television series, A House Through Time offers readers not only the tools to explore the histories of their own homes, but also a vividly readable history of the British city, the forces of industry, disease, mass transportation, crime and class. The rises and falls, the shifts in the fortunes of neighbourhoods and whole cities are here, tracing the often surprising journey one single house can take from an elegant dwelling in a fashionable district to a tenement for society's rejects. Packed with remarkable human stories, David Olusoga and Melanie Backe-Hansen give us a phenomenal insight into living history, a history we can see every day on the streets where we live. And it reminds us that it is at home that we are truly ourselves. It is there that the honest face of life can be seen. At home, behind closed doors and drawn curtains, we live out our inner lives and family lives.

This set of 23 volumes, originally published between 1934 and 1994 shed much light on the history of industrial relations and working-class organisation in the UK. They analyse trade union structure, organization and government and look at the pattern of union activity in the workplace. Containing fascinating insider accounts of developments in British industrial relations they analyse the impact of the changing economic and political climate on trade unions in Europe and use a series of comparative case studies to examine change in the government, growth, mergers, character and bargaining structures of British unions. They provide an introduction to the characteristics and styles of trade unionism in Europe and offer a comprehensive guide to the complex structure and administration of British Trade Unions as well as analysing the relationship between political parties and trade unions in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

'Women have won their political independence. Now is the time for them to achieve their economic freedom too.' This was the great rallying cry of the pioneers who, in 1919, created the Women's Engineering Society. Spearheaded by Katharine and Rachel Parsons, a powerful mother and daughter duo, and Caroline Haslett, whose mission was to liberate women from domestic drudgery, it was the world's first professional organisation dedicated to the campaign for women's rights. Magnificent Women and their Revolutionary Machines tells the stories of the women at the heart of this group - from their success in fanning the flames of a social revolution to their significant achievements in engineering and technology. It centres on the parallel but contrasting lives of the two main protagonists, Rachel Parsons and Caroline Haslett - one born to privilege and riches whose life ended in dramatic tragedy; the other who rose from humble roots to become the leading professional woman of her age and mistress of the thrilling new power of the twentieth century: electricity. In this fascinating book, acclaimed biographer Henrietta Heald also illuminates the era in which the society was founded. From the moment when women in Britain were allowed to vote for the first time, and to stand for Parliament, she charts the changing attitudes to women's rights both in society and in the workplace.

First published in 1979, The Miners: A History of the National Union of Mineworkers 1939-46 describes the events and factors that led to the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1946. The World War had a creative as well as a destructive effect on the industry; it compressed fundamental changes into seven short years. By the end of the war, the federated trade unions had succeeded in bringing about the unification of their industry; and the various county, district and craft associations were themselves also unified in one single national body. Two rival plans emerged during 1945: a coal-owners' plan, in conjunction with an 'experts' report', approved by Churchill and his Caretaker Cabinet, and Labour's 'plan for the coal industry' which came into force in 1946 as the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act. Anew epoch in management had begun, with a National Coal Board, new industrial relations and a new National Union of Mineworkers. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, economics and political science.

First published in 1955, A History of the Scottish Miners recounts the peculiar circumstances of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the laws that placed the miners under conditions unique in Europe. Carrying onto the nineteenth century, the author deals with the first trade unions, the period of Alexander McDonald and Keir Hardie, ending in the great strike of 1894 and the formation of the Scottish Miners' Federation, embracing eight county associations. From 1894 onwards, Robert Smillie led the Scots in good times and bad, up to the ordeal of the First World War. The effect in Scotland of the great lockouts of 1921 and 1926, with Robert Smillie no longer chairman of the British miners but still the leader in Scotland, is set out in detail. Then after a time of troubles, the Scots miners developed their organisations during the war and, before its end, under new leaders, they achieved a single union for Scotland. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, economics and political science.

Surveys developments from the establishment of the Apartheid state to 1982 when it was being challenged in the mines, factories and townships. After the Soweto Revolt, the government slowly began to compromise and by 1982 the conditions were present for the formation of a new union for black mineworkers. Key Features include studies of: Recruitment, harsh working conditions and work-related deaths and injuries, including a detailed account of the Coalbrook Colliery disaster in 1960 when 437 were killed. A wave of dissent by black students and industrial workers arose in the 1970s. The Guardian newspaper conducted a successful wages campaign for black workers. Black mineworkers joined the protesters in 1973-1976 when more than 200 of them were killed. These protests were followed by the Soweto uprising, by township violence and by a state response that was both oppressive and conciliatory

WINNER OF THE 2020 CONNECTICUT BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION AND NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS FOR BOOK CLUBS IN 2021 BY BOOKBROWSE "Perkins' richly detailed narrative is a reminder that gender equity has never come easily, but instead if borne from the exertions of those who precede us."-Nathalia Holt, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls If Yale was going to keep its standing as one of the top two or three colleges in the nation, the availability of women was an amenity it could no longer do without. In the winter of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education. Or was it? The experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. Yale Needs Women is the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future. Anne Gardiner Perkins's unflinching account of a group of young women striving for change is an inspiring story of strength, resilience, and courage that continues to resonate today. "Yes, Yale needed women, but it didn't really want them... Anne Gardiner Perkins tells how these young women met the challenge with courage and tenacity and forever changed Yale and its chauvinistic motto of graduating 1,000 male leaders every year."-Lynn Povich, author of The Good Girls Revolt

Few other cities can compare with Rome's history of continuous habitation, nor with the survival of so many different epochs in its present. This volume explores how the city's past has shaped the way in which Rome has been built, rebuilt, represented and imagined throughout its history. Bringing together scholars from the disciplines of architectural history, urban studies, art history, archaeology and film studies, this book comprises a series of studies on the evolution of the city of Rome and the ways in which it has represented and reconfigured itself from the medieval period to the present day. Moving from material appropriations such as spolia in the medieval period, through the cartographic representations of the city in the early modern period, to filmic representation in the twentieth century, we encounter very different ways of making sense of the past across Rome's historical spectrum. The broad chronological arrangement of the chapters, and the choice of themes and urban locations examined in each, allows the reader to draw comparisons between historical periods. An imaginative approach to the study of the urban and architectural make-up of Rome, this volume will be valuable not only for historians of art and architecture, but also for students of cultural history and film studies.

South Africa's prosperity was built on the wealth dragged out of the ground by mine workers: the first volume of three runs up to the defeat of the mineworkers' strike in 1946 and the election of the first Nationalist Party government. Key Features include: Information on the early days of the industry from slavery to compound labour. Explanation of the coercive forces that drove workers to the mines and of the creation of a permanent supply of cheap black labour. Strikes and Protests from the 1920s to 1946

This set of 44 volumes, originally published between 1924 and 1995, amalgamates a wide breadth of research on the Labour Movement, including labour union history, the early stages and development of the Labour Party, and studies on the working classes. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of political history.

This book uses 'politics of urban knowledge' as a lens to understand how professionals, administrations, scholars, and social movements have surveyed, evaluated and theorized the city, identified problems, and shaped and legitimized practical interventions in planning and administration. Urbanization has been accompanied, and partly shaped by, the formation of the city as a distinct domain of knowledge. This volume uses 'politics of urban knowledge' as a lens to develop a new perspective on urban history and urban planning history. Through case studies of mainly 19th and 20th century examples, the book demonstrates that urban knowledge is not simply a neutral means to represent cities as pre-existing entities, but rather the outcome of historically contingent processes and practices of urban actors addressing urban issues and the power relations in which they are embedded. It shows how urban knowledge-making has reshaped the categories, rationales, and techniques through which urban spaces were produced, governed and contested, and how the knowledge concerned became performative of newly emerging urban orders. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students in the field of urban history and urban studies, as well as the history of technology, science and knowledge and of science studies.

Short length provides a quick narrative overview of American urban history Describes both the European settlement towns of the colonial period, but also the influence of multiple waves of immigrants to the US. Works as a companion to The American Urban Reader (edited by the same authors), while also standing on its own

"The Real Thing: Coke's Bumpy Ride through India", is a non-fiction real life story of the Atlanta-based The Coca Cola Company's long troubled business journey, partly its own making and partly because of its wrong assessment of India's regulatory system and administrative framework. The content combines a painstaking research by the author into various aspects of the company's operations over a period of time and his insider's knowledge with a reporter's detachment. The chapters are constructed brick by brick to chronicle the company's and brand Coca-Cola's business moves in the sub-continent, following more of a hybrid than purely global or local standard. Entering India in 1991 after a 14-year exile, Coke's subsequent policies and practices have been mired in controversy. The pesticides in colas, the closure of the company's Kerala plant following its expose as a groundwater guzzler, and the company's constant fight with environmentalists, social activists and the government provided the impetus for writing this book. Having tracked Coke for over two decades, Nantoo Banerjee's book provides, possibly for the first time in India, a well-researched look into the operation of a major multinational - its managerial practices, especially some of the critical moves and decisions taken by its senior executives in Atlanta, Tokyo, Hong Kong and New Delhi, internal intrigue, customer care policies, external pressures and ruthless ambition. The book is brilliantly bold and lives up to the author's reputation as one of the country's best-known investigative business journalists.

In this collection, the essays examine the critical role that judgments about noise and sound played in framing the meaning of civility in British discourse and literature during the long eighteenth century. The volume restores the sonic dimension to conversations about civil conduct by exploring how censured behaviours and recommended practices resonated beyond the written word. As the contributors show, understanding changing perceptions and valuations of noise and sound allows us to chart how civility was understood in the context of significant political, social and cultural change, including the development of urban life, the extension of empire and the consolidation of legal procedure. Divided into three parts, Sound, Space and Civility in the British World demonstrates how both noise and sound could be recognized by eighteenth-century Britons as expressions of civility. The essays also explore the audible implications of uncivil conduct to complicate our understanding of the sonic range of politeness. The uses of sound and noise to interrogate British colonial anxieties about the distinction between civility and incivility are also investigated. Taken together, the essays identify the emergence of civility as a development that radically altered sonic attitudes and experiences, producing new notions of what counted as desirable or undesirable sound.