Mandela : The Authorized Biography

Rating:
Summary: A well-told education in character and leadership.
Review: If you believe there are no modern heroes - that fortitude and unselfish judgement in the face of adversity are out-of-date virtues, you need to read this book. That Sampson shows the whole man so well (with admittedly a few frailities) adds depth to the tremendous courage, excellent judgement, and magnanimity Mandela demonstrated his entire life, even when the cause of the ANC he led seemed hopeless. Along the way the book gives an excellent view of South African history during Mandela's adulthood. If you are not very familiar with Mandela or South Africa you might do better to start with Mandela's own book, "Long Walk to Freedom" which doesn't cover quite so much ground and is more on a human scale. Both books are inspiring.

Rating:
Summary: More than you ever wanted to know ..
Review: Sampson's book diminishes the achievement of Mandela by his failure to recognise that the years 1952-64 were not so much a struggle against the Pretoria regime but one for the leadership of the increasingly politicised African population. The postwar townships had thrown up a volatile society that found Mandela, Tambo, Lutuli and Sisulu too tied to the notion that status and education not policies and grass roots activism were enough to guarantee leadership. It is foolish to dismiss the Maoist attitudes of the Africanist Movement and their split into the PAC as motivated by dislike of communists. The ANC and their SACP allies were too elitist and undemocratic for the time. Mandela recognised this almost too late - Tambo changed the constitution in 1957 to stop the township hooligans" from taking over the party rather than deal with them. When the PAC campaign forced both ANC and PAC underground it was PAC activism that forced Mandela into violence and he again displayed his remoteness from the masses by having to rely on urban middle class white professionals to run his military campaign - Bernstein, Goldberg, Wolpe et al. By the time of Rivonia Mandela had been upstaged completely by the PAC and again in 1976 by Biko's movement. In 1980 the PAC army was massacred in its Tanzanian camp for opposing dialogue and detente, leaving an open field to the ANC (the present PAC has no connection with the real party). What Sampson fails to address is how Mandela, almost politically bankrupt in 1964, managed to emerge as a national leader. Sampson does not recognise that support for Mandela after 1964 came because even his rivals were appalled by such a savage sentence for what were quite innocuous activities. The ANC's moderate reformist political attitudes had driven away African support and only became acceptable once the cold war had ended and alternative doctrines had been discredited. Such a study would make Mandela a more facinating character. To portray his career as a sort of pre-ordained Messianic march backed all the way by adulating African masses is bad history and does Mandela injustice.

Rating:
Summary: More than you ever wanted to know ..
Review: The author obviously knows a great deal about Mandela and South Africa. However, there is so much detail that I found the book just deadening over time. The writing style was not engaging enough to sustain me through all the blow-by-blow accounts that one has to plod through . -I was surprised and disappointed that the book was not more enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing life of imprisonment to leadership!
Review: What an amazing life this man had. He was born on the rural plains in South Africa.. His father was absent due to forced circumstances. Mandela later received an education in law and began the practice of law. Political causes led to his imprisonment for nearly thirty years in Robbins Prison. The book tells the wrenching tale of his separation of his family during his imprisonment, yet the family (the second marriage, to Winnie) remained intact during his long imprisonment and only dissolved after the release from prison. The book is very heavy on the political activity in whch Mandela was involved. This is an interesting book of personal triumph over overwhelming odds.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing life of imprisonment to leadership!
Review: What an amazing life this man had. He was born on the rural plains in South Africa.. His father was absent due to forced circumstances. Mandela later received an education in law and began the practice of law. Political causes led to his imprisonment for nearly thirty years in Robbins Prison. The book tells the wrenching tale of his separation of his family during his imprisonment, yet the family (the second marriage, to Winnie) remained intact during his long imprisonment and only dissolved after the release from prison. The book is very heavy on the political activity in whch Mandela was involved. This is an interesting book of personal triumph over overwhelming odds.