Reviews for MANDELA : THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY

The average rating for MANDELA : THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-11-24 00:00:00 Mark Walker This book gives a comprehensive account of Mandela's political career, his role in the ANC and the S.A. anti-apartheid movement. Coming from a country that shares Commonwealth links with South Africa and which has its own history of colonisation, I started this biography with what I considered to be the slightest hint of background knowledge. On that count I was terribly, terribly mistaken. It's a complex issue, involving many diverse social and political groups and I'm sure it will take me many more years of reading to attain that 'slight hint of knowledge'. Not that I mind. It's a fascinating subject. But I did feel that Nelson Mandela 'the person' gets a little lost amongst all this comprehensive political coverage. The blurb says that Sampson was given '...unprecedented access to 27 years' worth of unpublished correspondence from prison, as well as to other unpublished writings including [Mandela's] original, suppressed, autobiography.' I want to know where it all went! Aside from a few photographs, almost no primary source material has been reprinted in this book. It's all secondary information, told to us through Sampson's point of view. For example, there are no speeches. We are told about the speeches, and made to believe that they were important, and yet we are barely given a segment of them to read ourselves. Likewise there are no complete letters, and the longest quote runs for half a page. Next on my list is his autobiography; so, until then...

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-11 00:00:00 Jacob Hauversburk Public library copy. Not likely to read this straight through because of its length, but I'm going to try. Finished Part 1 before Christmas. January 17, 2017 just passed the halfway mark, making progress. Yesterday being Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in America, I read a good portion of Mandela. I read that the political prisoners on Robben Island hated the U.S. in general. I'm up to 1976, when they have been imprisoned for twelve years or more, with no help from the west. They felt rather forgotten. Just over halfway, Mandela is still in prison, incredibly long (imprisonment). Effective leadership, effective governing involves patience, a willingness to listen to your opponent(s), and the ability to talk, wait, talk and wait. #openthedialogue Down to the last forty pages. What a sad story. All that work, and more work, and not being able to achieve his dreams. Not that he was unsuccessful, he succeeded in establishing, peacefully, a multi-racial government, which is huge. But the dream of equality in living (for the black Africans and minority groups), the messes which the apartheid government left for the ANC to clean up, and who knows how much corruption continued as the two groups worked together, was massive. Working together with deKlirk would be like having Obama stay on board while Trump is president.... and then ex-wife Winnie, she's a whole bag of tricks herself. It's a hard story. There's much to consider between ideology and the practical workings of government. There's much to learn about many areas, from Mandela himself and from others. It's an incredible story that so many worked for so many decades unswerving from their cause, which is Mandela's primary strength. His focus, at the cost of his family. This book is well written and documented, using some firsthand information as the author was in and out of South Africa for the entire time of Mandela's public life, some written sources, and many interviews, some by the author, and media sources. It's not too difficult, save for the length. It's fairly clean also, a few places where language is in quotes, but not in the text. A quote from Mandela on page 264: "Honest Men are to be found on both sides of the color line and the Afrikaner is no exception. ... A violent clash is now unavoidable and when we have fought it out and reduced the country to ashes it will still be necessary for us to sit down together and talk about the problems of reconstruction--the back man and the white man, the African and the Afrikaner." Last night I read the last eighteen pages aloud. I especially like the final chapter where the author talks about Image and Reality, comparing the icon with the real Mandela. The author presents Mandela as a genuine person, who because of his commitment to his goal of interracial democratic government, to be achieved without civil war, combined with the inner strengths he developed in prison at Robben Island, was successful in achieving his goal, in spite of missteps along the way, and in spite of the multitude of barriers thrown his way. It came with a price, that of giving up his family for his country, which Mandela himself admits. Mandela's ability to negotiate with the apartheid government, not for himself but for his country, his unswerving goal of freeing all minorities, putting them on equal footing with whites, and his ability to work with all tribes, seeing them all as African, is incredible. This is a great read, though long, which doesn't get dry or lag, but moves right along. It covers much time and much detail and in the end boils it all down to the infallible man, Madiba, who saved South Africa without a civil war. I recommend this book to all interested in the story of apartheid in South Africa or Nelson Mandela or revolution without civil war or you just want something out of the ordinary to read. Enjoy!