Riveting insights into the history of poor white people in South Africa. Two weeks before the 2010 Soccer World Cup an article ran in the New York Times showing the “new and invisible” problem in South Africa: poor whites. According to this article this problem grew – if not started – after South Africa had become a democracy in 1994. Edward-John Bottomley takes a look at this idea and finds that poor whites have always been a part of the South African landscape. But even more than that: they have always been seen as some special problem to be solved. The book investigates the response of those in power to this issue, from the government to the church. From the late 19th century to the inquests on white poverty in the early 20th century to the apartheid government’s response to the problem, Bottomley traces the history of poor whites in South Africa. In the end, he finds that the issue isn’t the existence of white poverty, but the response of those in positions of power. Also available in Afrikaans as Armblankes.