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Article: The Randlords.
- Article from:
- The New Leader
- Article date:
- August 11, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Randlords
As SOUTH AFRICA drifts inexorably toward disaster, the question of roads not taken inevitably arises. Just when did the country go wrong? Geoffrey Wheatcroft's crisp and engaging account of the great diamond and gold magnates, The Randlords (Atheneum, 314 pp., $17.95), concentrating on what is no doubt the most important chapter in South Africa's history, leaves the impression that alternate paths have been few indeed. Ever since diamonds were found along the Orange River in 1869 and gold was discovered a few years later on the Witwatersrand, events have unfolded with all the ineluctability of a classic Greek tragedy.
The West came to the ...