The Randlords: The Exploits & Exploitations of South Africa's Mining Magnates

by Geoffrey Wheatcroft

In the late 1860s South Africa was the forgotten end of the earth, remote, empty, and poor. Within thirty years it was irrevocably changed by the discovery of fabulous riches in diamonds and in gold. To these fields went every buccaneer, swindler, and adventurer at the turn of the century, where man of them made staggeringly huge fortunes, amassing baronetcies and Park Lane mansions along the way.

The Randlords, as they were called, were men of ferocious feuds and ambitions--men like Cecil Rhodes, who began life as a vicar's son and ended it with sinister ideals of Teutonic world domination; like Alfred Beit, gauche and celibate, as cripplingly shy as he was infinitely cunning and Barney Barnato, prizefighter, comic actor, unconvicted illicit diamond dealer, so expert in stock manipulation that by the of his suicide at the age of forty-four he had come to swindling himself.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, South Africa, Africa

314 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945 in London) is a British journalist and writer.

He was educated at University College School, London, and at New College, Oxford, where he read Modern History.

Publishing and journalism
He started work in publishing in 1968, working for Hamish Hamilton (1968–70), Michael Joseph (1971–73), and Cassell & Co (1974–75).

In 1975 he became the assistant editor of The Spectator, moving to the post of literary editor, which he occupied from 1977 to 1981. During the period 1981–84, he worked as a reporter in South Africa before becoming editor of the Londoner's Diary gossip column in the London Evening Standard, 1985–86. He was a Sunday Telegraph columnist 1987–91, freelance 1993–96; feature writer on the Daily Express, 1996–97; and has since written for The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, The American Conservative, and other publications on both sides of the Atlantic.

Reviews

[Jean-Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why did I read this? Well, the short answer is television. When I was younger I remember a television adaptation of PG du Plessis's Fees van die ongenooides (Feast of the Uninvited), and another, made much earlier, starring Martin Shaw as Cecil Rhodes. Mix those two together and what emerges is this gem of a book.

Tracing the history of the South African mining industry (diamonds and gold), and the major players involved, it touches briefly on the Second Boer War and the beginnings of Johannesburg, including the suburb of Parktown. And let's not forget the bit about Anthony Trollope, which makes me want to read some of his books.

[Ashley Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good overview and interesting insights. Infuriating style of writing- at times clumsy and obscure. Worth the read all the same.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of how mining drove the development (from a European perspective) of Southern Africa.

Having been written while apartheid was still going, the saying that "history is written by the victors" doesn't sanitize the narratives of the storyline into present day political correctness. I enjoyed it.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you want to understand how Johannesburg came to be and how British, Afrikaner Boers and local black people contributed to the Gold centre of the world from late 1800

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much detail for me . If you are interested in the mining history of South Africa then this is the book for you. I was only interested in the general history of the county. Very well organized and well written.