Using E.P. Thompson to think about South African history: notes on a personal journey

Abstract

ABSTRACT My 1986 article, ‘The moral economy of the black miners’ strike of 1946’, is probably the clearest public affirmation of Edward Thompson’s influence on my understanding of South African social history. Yet the impact of Thompson’s ideas on my scholarly life and work is much more extensive than that. This article attempts to account more fully for my indebtedness to Thompson’s wide-ranging insights into the historical complexity of collective action. That applies to my early work on Afrikaner nationalism as well as my understanding of the complexities of the emergence of black migrant proletarianization on the South African gold mines.