Reviews for Mandela VSI

The average rating for Mandela VSI based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-09 00:00:00 Cheryl Mccleery This book got off to a slow start, with a bit of academic shop talk about how academics have written about Mandela. But after that, the book was engrossing. It covers Mandela's biography well and then goes on to consider him topically, based on the different roles he played in his life. I usually don't like the topical treatment because it seems lazy and unhelpful, but this was very well done and accomplished its purpose - it makes clear how many roles Mandela had to play to succeed (and he knew he was performing for all the world to watch) and how well he did it. By the end of the book, I was amazed at the man. The fact that he spent 27 years in prison and emerged as a conciliator is astonishing, and it was only possible through his deliberate choices to eschew violence and steer towards unity. This book is not all praise, of course. Mandela was flawed and constrained by the circumstances of his age and South Africa's political and social realities. But he also struggled mightily to overcome the bad and ultimately held his country together through wise though painful compromises and his very carefully cultivated charisma and moral authority.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-18 00:00:00 Mikee Pablo The book: Nelson Mandela: A Very Short Introduction The author: Elleke Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford The subject: A biography of Nelson Mandela looking at the different roles he fulfilled throughout his life. Why I chose it: After Mandela's death I realised I only knew basic things about him and wanted to find out more. In particular, I saw people on Facebook saying he was a communist and a terrorist and couldn't figure out why from what I knew. The rating: Four out of five stars What I thought of it: I'm really glad that this was the first book I picked up about Nelson Mandela. I love the author's approach of looking at all the different roles Mandela played throughout his life. It is a lot more effective than a straight biography. The book can be a bit heavy-going at times, particularly if you're like me and aren't familiar with the way in which academics in the humanities write. However, it's still very well-written and its difficulty is probably a function of it being so short -- Boehmer has to cover a lot of ground in not very many pages -- as well as the structure being unorthodox. I also appreciate her willingness to be critical of Mandela about subjects such as his slow response to the AIDS crisis, while still maintaining perspective. With regards to the reason I picked this book up: I see now why a certain type of person might consider Mandela a communist and terrorist, but thankfully also see how horribly misguided that certain type of person is. In fact, Mandela was relatively un-radical compared to his contemporaries and it took him a long time to accept communism as it was viewed as un-African, and even then he didn't fully embrace it. Also, while he did resort to violence, he and his fellow protesters were very careful to sabotage, rather than terrorise, only targeting sites where there would be no people to be injured. Peaceful protest is all well and good, but in apartheid-stricken South Africa black people's rights to this were eroded to the point of non-existence. What else could they have done? And if Mandela was a terrorist, what of all the leaders who supported apartheid? All in all, I definitely recommend this book both to those familiar with Mandela and those who only know him as the political prisoner who became President of South Africa. It is far more than just a biography. Just one more thing: This article is generally very interesting and covers important political ground, but the opening paragraph is just hilarious and shows one of Mandela's many facets. Asked for his feelings on meeting the Spice Girls in 1997 - shortly after Mel B had compared their "girl power quest" with the anti-apartheid movement - Nelson Mandela obliged. "I don't want to be emotional," he explained, "but this is one of the greatest moments of my life."