SLEEP OF REASON

Politics & Social Sciences

David James Smith

Social Sciences

Arrow Books, Ltd.

Young Mandela

Nelson Mandela is the world's greatest idol.  He has been mythologised as a flawless hero of the liberation struggle.  But how exactly did his early personal and political life shape the triumphs to come? This book goes behind the myth to find the man who people have forgotten or never knew - Young Mandela, the commited freedom fighter, who left his wife and children behind to go on the run from the police in the early 1960s. For the first time, we have evidence of a specific personal motivation for Mandela's fight against apartheid, and the book sheds light on the significant extent to which Mandela relied on white activists - a part of South African history the ANC has ignored or tried to bury.  Mandela's historic achievements came with a heavy price - this biography graphically describes the emotional turmoil he left in his wake. After meticulous research, and taking a lead from Mandela's trusted circle, the author discovers much that is new, with many surprising, sometimes shocking details that will enhance our understanding of the world's elder statesman.  Sanctified, lionised, it turns out that Mandela is a human being after all, only too aware of his flaws and shortcomings. With unique access to people and papers, culminating in a meeting with Nelson Mandela himself, David James Smith has written the single most important contribution to our knowledge of this global icon.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

Ruthless revolutionary; passionate womaniser; activist; hothead. Meet the young Mandela.  Nelson Mandela has been mythologised as a flawless hero of the liberation struggle. But how exactly did his early life shape the triumphs to come? This book goes behind the myth to find the man who people have forgotten or never knew - Young Mandela, the committed freedom fighter, who left his wife and children behind to go on the run from the police in the early 1960s. But his historic achievements came at a heavy price and David James Smith graphically describes the emotional turmoil Mandela left in his wake.  After meticulous research, and taking a lead from Mandela's trusted circle, the author discovers much that is new, surprising, and sometimes shocking that will enhance our understanding of the world's elder statesman. For the first time, we have evidence of a specific personal motivation for Mandela's fight against apartheid, and this book sheds light on the significant extent to which Mandela relied on white activists - a part of South African history the ANC has ignored or tried to bury. Sanctified, lionised, it turns out that Mandela is a human being after all, only too aware of his flaws and shortcomings. With unique access to people and papers, culminating in a meeting with Mandela himself, Smith has written the single most important contribution to our knowledge of this global icon.

Phoenix

A revelatory portrait of Nelson Mandela's early years as an anti-apartheid revolutionary seeking to change his country and the world.Nelson Mandela is well known throughout the world as a heroic leader who symbolizes freedom and moral authority. He is fixed in the public mind as the world's elder statesman -- the gray-haired man with a kindly smile who spent twenty-seven years in prison before becoming the first black president of South Africa. But Nelson Mandela was not always elderly or benign. In Young Mandela, David James Smith takes us deep into the heart of racist South Africa to paint a portrait of the Mandela that many have forgotten: the committed revolutionary who left his family behind to live on the run, adopting false names, and organizing the first strikes to overthrow the apartheid state. Young Mandela lifts the curtain on an icon's first steps to greatness.

Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years (Library Edition)

Blackstone Audiobooks

Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years

Historical

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Books by David James Smith