<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><i>Ekurhuleni: The Making of an Urban Region</i> is 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 19th century. From the time of the discovery of gold and coal until the turn of the 21st 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 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.</p>