Carnegie Commission, The Poor White Problem in South Africa

Literature › Primary sources

Kind	commission or official report
Producer	Carnegie Commission
Coverage	1932
Works using it	8

Debates

Debate	Works
Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?	4
Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves	3
Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War	2
Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism	2
The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion	1
Education, Bantu Education and skills	1
Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals	1
Long-run legacy and persistence of apartheid	1
Resistance and liberation movements	1
Sanctions, disinvestment and the anti-apartheid movement	1

Works using this source

Work	As cited	Period	How used
De Kiewiet (1941)	Carnegie Commission, The Poor White Problem in South Africa (1932)	1932	Listed in bibliography as basis for poor white analysis; the text cites 'best available evidence' of 160,000 poor whites.
Korf (2010)	Report of the National Conference on the Poor White Problem, Kimberley 1934 (P. du Toit) and Carnegie Commission findings	1934	Establishes the poor-white framing that shifted Malan's and the NP's racial policy in the 1930s.
Massie (1997)	Carnegie Commission report on the Poor White Question in South Africa (1932)	1932	Supplies the figures on white poverty that frame the Volkscongres and the rise of Afrikaner nationalist politics.
McGrath et al. (2004b)	Carnegie Commission on the Poor White Problem, Education and the Poor White (Malherbe 1932)	1932	Gives the estimate of poor whites and the share of rural white boys who went into farming.
Milburn and Cole (1957)	Carnegie Commission, The Poor White Problem in South Africa (5 vols., 1932), with economic and educational reports	1932	Listed as a source on economic conditions that bears on the activities of parties in government.
O'Meara (1978)	Carnegie Corporation Commission, The Poor White Problem in South Africa (1932) and Dept. of Labour Report 1933 (UG 3/1934)	1931-1933	Establishes the scale of poor whiteism (300,000 very poor) and registered unemployment (188,000 in 1933).
Van Schoor (1986)	Carnegie Commission Report on the Poor White problem	c.1932	Supplies the estimate of 300,000 poor whites after the civilized labour policy, compared with 160,000 official figures earlier.
Wilson (2011)	Carnegie Commission, The Poor White Problem in South Africa (1932)	1932	Cited for the importance of factory jobs for working-class white women in supporting families, contrasted with pass-law restrictions on black women.