The first academic work to provide an historical account and explanation of the development of this extended region to the east of Johannesburg since its origins at the end of the nineteenth century. From the time of the discovery of gold and coal until the turn of the twenty-first century, the region comprised a number of distinctive towns, all with their own histories. In 2000, these towns were amalgamated into a single metropolitan area, but, unlike its counterparts across the country, it does not cohere around a single identity. Drawing on a significant body of academic work as well as original research by the authors, the book traces and examines some of the salient historical strands that constituted what was formerly known as the East Rand and suggests that, notwithstanding important differences between towns and the racial fragmentation generated by apartheid, the region's history contains significant common features. Arguably, its centrality as a major mining area and then as the country's engineering heartland gave Ekurhuleni an overarching distinctive economic character.

Origins and early days; Class struggle; Black Ekurhuleni, 1890-1927; Ekurhuleni's insubordinate women, 1918-1945; Social worlds and social strains in industrialising Ekurhuleni; Squatter camps and immigrant culture; Politics; Consolidating apartheid and the black response; Making of a modern economy; Reshaping the urban landscape; The student movement of 1976; Ekurhuleni and the struggle against apartheid; A time of insurrection; Politics of the stalemate; The politics of transition; City of fragments; Informal and contentious city.