A 1972 book on the determination of wages amongst miners in South Africa.

"An indispensable look at the working conditions, social lives, and collective action of black miners. . . . [Moodie's] meticulous, reflective, incessantly questioning approach to power, drink, sexuality, conflict, and routine life in mines and compounds reveals an extraordinary world at the edge of hope and desperation."—Charles Tilly, The New School for Social Research "Combines a rigorous use of theory with a marvellous and sensitive sympathy."—Terence O. Ranger, co-editor of The Invention of Tradition

Study of the origins of the migrant labour system in South Africa's gold mining industry. Traces the development of the recruiting system and discusses how the gold industry struggled against the internal divisions which created the competition for labour, until the Chamber of Mines, with the support of the State, centralized the system.