- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix (7 April 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753825481
- ISBN-13: 978-0753825488
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 643,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Young Mandela
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'It is a brave biographer who dares the re-evaluate the man behind the myth...David James Smith's fascinating account does just that, revealing unexpected, sometimes shocking details' (Aimee Shalan GUARDIAN )
'An eye-opening account' (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )
'An eye-opening account' (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )
Book Description
The life of Nelson Mandela before his 27-year imprisonment in 1962.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
young,inexperienced but human,
By
This review is from: Young Mandela (Hardcover)
This is an interesting book on the first half of Mandela's life, leading up to his imprisonment in the early 60s. The author seeks to strip away much of the mythology that has surrounded Mandela's life and present him as he was then; young, inexperienced, a bit of a dandy and a womaniser, but with clear signs of the talent,charisma and moral character that would mold him into the world statesman he would later become. With many of the participants now dead or in extremely old age with failing memories and given the secretive nature of an opposition figure in 1950s and 1960s South Africa there are many gaps in Mandela's early life and activities. The author wisely steers a middle course through the differing versions of whether Mandela was present at such and such a meeting etc and manages to produce an interesting account of the embroyonic and unsuccessful struggle against apartheid. Unfortunately this struggle was made harder by the naivety and incompetance of some figures in the opposition movement. You can feel the author's anger at Arthur Goldreich and Ruth First, two white activists in the oppostion movement, for failing to remove and destroy Mandela's papers after his arrest-thereby presenting the authorities with the evidence to put Mandela behind bars for life. It is intriging to speculate what the future of the anti apartheid movement would have been if these papers had been destroyed and Mandela only sentenced to five years imprisonment (for illegally leaving the country).On a personal note I lived in Johannesburg in the mid 80s and have discovered, through this book, that my office in the CBD was only a hundred metres from Mandela's old law office. I walked past his office every day but unfortunately never realised it as Mandela's story had been well and truely buried by the apartheld authorities.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Young Mandela,
By
This review is from: Young Mandela (Hardcover)
This was bought as a present for a man with African diplomatic connections to read whilst recuperating, and he tells me he found it very interesting: a good read, containing information he had not previously known.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great material but frustrating to read,
By J Martin Jellinek - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years (Hardcover)
Young Mandela is an interesting study of the life of Nelson Mandela leading up to the time of his imprisonment. Of course I had heard of Mandela as the first African president of post-Apartheid South Africa, but I was unaware of who he truly was and why his liberation from prison was such a big deal.This book helped me obtain knowledge of exactly who Mandela was in his younger years. He was initially a strong supporter of change brought on by non-violent revolution. As the pressure and discrimination became more pronounced, he changed position and advocated a more violent revolution. In Young Mandela, Smith uses a largely journalistic format, given his background as a reporter. This format assumed that the reader had some familiarity with the primary players in the drama and understood the basic politics involved. As a reader who had neither of these qualifications, I found parts of the book difficult to follow, especially since there is a huge cast of characters, many of who show up only sporadically. This made for frustrating reading. So, overall the book was very informative and covered territory that I was unfamiliar to me. This is why I bought the book. But it was also frustrating reading the book. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hard to follow and yet i think I learned something,
By John - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years (Hardcover)
I knew very little about Mandela and his struggle, thats why I listen to this audiobook. If I followed it correctly, Mandela did not fully embrace communism, but it was communist revolutionaries that he primarily worked with, they were influenced by Gandhi and tried non-violent civil disobedience, but eventually felt it was not working and thus decided to try a violent route like Che Guerva, but their preparation and attempts were laughable. They were amateurs and poor, and it did not take long for them to get caught. Mandela was sentence for life, but after 20 something years the political scene changed and he was released and became president. Mandela, was unique among most of the Africans he worked with, for a majority were just as racist as the whites, they just wanted to be the oppressors instead of being the oppressed. Mandela wanted equality. This book showed his messed up personal life, he was horrible to his wives and was a womanizer and most of those he worked with had very colored personal lives as well and yet high political ideals. Most sacrificed their families for the high cause.
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