Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

by John Carlin

Overview

Read the book that inspired the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning 2009 film INVICTUS featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Daymon, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament- the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule-to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440634246
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/14/2008
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	422,621
File size:	471 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Carlin is senior international writer for El País, the world’sleading Spanish language newspaper, and was previously the U.S.bureau chief for The Independent on Sunday. His writing has appeared inThe New York Times, The New Republic, Wired, Spin, and Conde NastTraveler.

Table of Contents

Playing The EnemyIntroduction

Chapter I: Breakfast in Houghton
Chapter II: The Minister of Justice
Chapter III: Separate Amenities
Chapter IV: Bagging the Croc
Chapter V: Different Planets
Chapter VI: Ayatollah Mandela
Chapter VII: The Tiger King
Chapter VIII: The Mask
Chapter IX: The Bitter-Enders
Chapter X: Romancing the General
Chapter XI: "Address Their Hearts"
Chapter XII: The Captain and the President
Chapter XIII: Springbok Serenade
Chapter XIV: Silvermine
Chapter XV: Doubting Thomases
Chapter XVI: The Number Six Jersey
Chapter XVII: "Nelson! Nelson!"
Chapter XVIII: Blood in the Throat
Chapter XIX: Love Thine Enemy

Epilogue
Where Are They Now?
Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources
Index

A section of photographs follows page 114.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

" This wonderful book describes Mandela's methodical, improbable and brilliant campaign to reconcile resentful blacks and fearful whites around a sporting event, a game of rugby."
-The New York Times Book Review

" If you have any doubts about the political genius of Nelson Mandela, read John Carlin's engrossing book . . . [A] feel-good slice of history."
-USA Today

Editorial Reviews

"This wonderful book describes Mandela's methodical, improbable and brilliant campaign to reconcile resentful blacks and fearful whites around a sporting event, a game of rugby." —The New York Times Book Review

"If you have any doubts about the political genius of Nelson Mandela, read John Carlin's engrossing book . . . [A] feel-good slice of history." —USA Today

From the Publisher