Mandela : the authorized biography

Resource Information

The work Mandela : the authorized biography represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in San Francisco Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Mandela : the authorized biography

Title remainder

the authorized biography

Statement of responsibility

Anthony Sampson

Creator

• Sampson, Anthony A

Subject

• Electronic books
• Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013
• Presidents -- South Africa -- Biography
• Biographies
• South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century

Genre

• Biography
• Electronic books
• Biographies

Language

eng

Summary

• This book is a biography of Nelson Mandela, who emerged from twenty-six years of political imprisonment to lead South Africa out of apartheid and into democracy
• The Life of Nelson Mandela is one of the most extraordinary epics of the twentieth century. An almost-forgotten prisoner on Robben Island twenty years ago, apparently doomed to a helpless existence as a victim of apartheid, he not only survived but almost single-handedly saved South Africa from potential chaos, to become one of the most widely admired leaders in the world. Mandela's myth is dazzling; in this biography Anthony Sampson penetrates it to show us the man himself. Mandela is filled with new insights and information. We see how prison, which he and his fellow inmates turned into a kind of unofficial university, gradually transformed Mandela from a headstrong activist into a reflective and consummately skilled statesman. We learn how British and American diplomats cold-shouldered him when support was desperately needed, and about the political infighting, sometimes vicious, that went on between anti-apartheid factions. Particularly fascinating is Sampson's narrative of the incredible negotiations leading to Mandela's release from prison and the eventual collapse of the white regime, when his colleagues feared that he was selling out to the government. At every turn, this book sheds fresh light on the moral dilemmas that Mandela was forced to face again and again in his personal and public lives. In the struggle for freedom for South African blacks, he paid a tragic price, becoming alienated from his wife and remote from his children. Yet he famously retained his humanity, and while Sampson does not conceal Mandela's failings - his stubbornness, his fixed loyalties, his princely manners and detachment - the man who emerges is authentically heroic. -- Publisher description

Biography type

individual biography

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

• 968.06/5/092
• B

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps
• plates

Index

index present

Interest level

UG

LC call number

DT1974

LC item number

.S26 1999

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Reading level

11.2

Study program name

Accelerated Reader