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It is well known that the Anglo American Group of companies is a major force in the economic, political, and social life of South Africa, and that its influence extends deep into the rest of Africa, as well, as Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asia. Yet there has been to date no thoroughgoing analysis of the conditions and extent of Anglo's power, the form it takes, how it works, and what its limitations are.

In this substantial scholarly study, Duncan Innes fills this need. By focusing on Anglo's rise to power with the industrial economy, and on the social and political conditions that surrounded and influenced that process, Innes presents a picture of the growth of capitalism in which the tendency toward monopoly is driven forward by the need to intensify the process of exploitation and control of the African workforce. This is thus not only a history of one company, but a history of South Africa, as well.