Charles van Onselen explained

Birth Date:	14 August 1944
Birth Place:	Boksburg, Transvaal Union of South Africa
Alma Mater:	Rhodes University University of the Witwatersrand Oxford University
Thesis Title:	African mine labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900-1933
Thesis Url:	https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990133718680107026
Thesis Year:	1974
Workplaces:	University of Pretoria
Notable Works:	The Seed is Mine

Charles van Onselen (birth 14 August 1944, Boksburg)^[1] is a researcher and historian based at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Education

Van Onselen holds a B.Sc. and U.E.D. from Rhodes University, a B.A. Hons. from the University of the Witwatersrand, a D.Phil. from Oxford University and a D.Lit.(Honoris Causa) from Rhodes.

Academic career

He is based at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.^{[2] [3]}

Recognition and awards

He received the Alan Paton Award for The Seed is Mine in 1997.^[2]

Personal life

Charles was married to Belinda Bozzoli, and their three children including Gareth van Onselen.^[4]

Selected works

• The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper 1894–1985 (1996), described as a "detailed and compelling history of the effect of South Africa's Land Laws on one man and his family"^[5]
• New Babylon New Nineveh: Everyday life on the Witwatersand 1886–1914, a social and economic history of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century Witwatersrand
• The Fox and the Flies (2007), a social, political, and economic history of the Trans-Atlantic underworld from about 1890 until 1918, the year Joseph Silver was executed by the Austro-Hungarian military, in which Van Onselen speculates that Silver could have been Jack the Ripper^[6]

Bibliography

• Book: Chibaro: African mine labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900-1933. Pluto Press. 1976. 978-0902818880. London.
• Book: Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886–1914: Volume I: New Babylon, Volume II: New Nineveh. Ravan Press. 1982. Johannesburg.
• Book: The Small Matter of a Horse: The Life of 'Nongoloza' Mathebula, 1867-1948. Ravan Press. 1984. 0869752391. Johannesburg.
• Book: The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, A South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985. James Currey. 1996. Oxford.
• Book: The Fox and the Flies: The Secret Life of a Grotesque Master Criminal. Walker Publishing. 2007. 978-0-8027-1641-5. New York. registration.
• Book: Masked Raiders: Irish Banditry in Southern Africa, 1880-1899. Zebra Press. 2010. 9781770220805. Cape Town.
• Book: Showdown at the Red Lion: The Life and Times of Jack McLoughlin, 1859-1910. Jonathan Ball. 2015. 9781868426225. Johannesburg.
• Book: The Cowboy Capitalist: John Hays Hammond, The American West, and the Jameson Raid. Jonathan Ball Publishers. 2017. 9781868427383. Johannesburg.
• The Night Trains. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers. 2019. .

Notes and References

1. Web site: CURRICULUM VITAE . University of Pretoria.
2. Web site: Prof Charles van Onselen . . 2022 . 9 June 2022.
3. Web site: UP's Prof Charles van Onselen awarded prestigious Academy of Science of South Africa Humanities Book Prize . . 15 March 2021. 9 June 2022.
4. Web site: Bozzoli, Belinda . www.encyclopedia.com . 5 December 2020 . 7 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201207231243/https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bozzoli-belinda . live .
5. Web site: Footnotes .
6. News: Charles van Onselen - The Fox and the Flies: The Secret Life of a Grotesque Master Criminal - Book - Review. Grimes. William. 2007-10-03. The New York Times. 2019-07-31. en-US. 0362-4331. subscription.