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Mandela: The Authorized Biography | 
 enlarge | Author: Anthony Sampson
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $19.00
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 442839
Media: Paperback
Pages: 736
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0679781781
Dewey Decimal Number: 968.065092
EAN: 9780679781783
ASIN: 0679781781
Publication Date: September 12, 2000
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Amazon.com Review
British journalist Anthony Sampson first met Nelson Mandela in 1951, when Sampson was editing a black magazine in Johannesburg, and his biography of the leader benefits greatly from his long familiarity with South Africa and his access to the 81-year-old statesman's unpublished letters and documents. These are particularly helpful in chronicling Mandela's political and spiritual odyssey during 27 years in prison, when the fiery anti-apartheid militant condemned to life imprisonment in 1964 evolved into a dignified, authoritative leader convinced that "reconciliation would be essential to survival." The roots of this stance lie deep in African history; Sampson's excellent chapters on Mandela's rural youth remind readers that he was the aristocratic scion of a royal family who early imbibed the tribal tradition of ubuntu (mutual responsibility and compassion) and the local king's emphasis on ruling by consensus. South Africa's relatively peaceful transition to multiracial democracy owes much to Mandela's ability to voice these concepts in contemporary terms. And Sampson's detailed explication of the ins and outs of revolutionary politics over five decades--though sometimes heavy going for the general reader--vividly reveals how his subject achieved the political and moral maturity that made his 1994 election as the nation's first black president both inevitable and exhilarating. --Wendy Smith
Product Description
Nelson Mandela, who emerged from twenty-six years of political imprisonment to lead South Africa out of apartheid and into democracy, is perhaps the world's most admired leader, a man whose life has been led with exemplary courage and inspired conviction.
Now Anthony Sampson, who has known Mandela since 1951 and has been a close observer of South Africa's political life for the last fifty years, has produced the first authorized biography, the most informed and comprehensive portrait to date of a man whose dazzling image has been difficult to penetrate. With unprecedented access to Mandela's private papers (including his prison memoir, long thought to have been lost), meticulous research, and hundreds of interviews--from Mandela himself to prison warders on Robben Island, from Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo to Winnie Mandela and F. W. de Klerk, and many others intimately connected to Mandela's story--Sampson has composed an enlightening and necessary story of the man behind the myth.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A well-told education in character and leadership. October 21, 1999
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
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.
 Sampson's work reflects his own class aspirations June 18, 1999
DR. BERNARD LEEMAN (Brisbane, Australia)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
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.
A very good introduction to a deep man September 30, 1999
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
If you need to know Nelson Mandela, this is the book to read. This book's weaknesses are evident: It is written from a British viewpoint, and basically takes for granted a knowledge of South African history and geography most Americans do not possess (though they should). It also soft pedals the problems in Mandela's relationship with Winnie, though that is understandable. I have a feeling that not too many people could understand it. But it does a great job of making us see how the man was shaped and became what he is, and how he stands as a fearless, remarkable leader.
 More than you ever wanted to know .. June 1, 2000
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
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.
A Hero for our times! September 16, 1999
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I knew very little of Nelson Mandela before reading this book, but now I am confident that I have an excellent feel for what makes this man tick. This is an excellent book and one that should be read by anyone who wants to be inspired!
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