{"product_id":"9781776195640","title":"New Babylon New Nineveh","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew Babylon, New Nineveh explores the struggles of everyday people on the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914.\u003cbr\u003eThis was a period of extraordinary social, political and economic change. Charles van Onselen explores a host of practices and problems that, in many ways, make for startling comparisons with South Africa today. In eight fascinating essays, Van Onselen explores \u003cbr\u003emining on the Rand and covers diverse aspects of social development that accompanied industrialisation and urbanisation in the years before the First World War.\u003cbr\u003eVan Onselen investigates alcohol and prostitution, used to control both black and white mine workers by the state and mining companies. He delves into the emergence of powerful East European criminal syndicates, which brought women to work in the \u003cbr\u003etaverns and brothels. This exploitation of single miners later gave way to the official encouragement of working-class family life, which led to the advent of domestic servants and the introduction of a systematic programme of suburbanisation and cheap public \u003cbr\u003etransport.\u003cbr\u003eWe learn how not even these developments were able to protect the poorest South Africans of the time: Afrikaners and black South Africans. Van Onselen explains how Afrikaner unemployment and an affinity for trade unions were paralleled by further marginalisation, black unemployment and the resultant formation of prison gangs, which flourish to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"book-contributors\"\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"contributor-item\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"contributor-role\"\u003eAuthor\u003c\/span\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=Author+Charles+Van+Onselen\" class=\"contributor-link\"\u003eCharles Van Onselen\u003c\/a\u003e\n  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Charles Van Onselen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47380339687587,"sku":"9781776195640","price":500.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0741\/7836\/3555\/files\/img_9781776195640_59a79b7d-bd01-4219-b5fd-ecbd5cda300d.jpg?v=1776804936","url":"https:\/\/graffitibooks.co.za\/products\/9781776195640","provider":"Graffiti Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}