Mandela
Donna FaulknerNelson Mandela led a long and remarkable life. From his earliest days herding cows in a South African village, he became a child of privilege, a rebellious runaway, an impoverished student, a father, a successful lawyer, a political dissident, a rising star in the African nationalist movement, an underground saboteur, the chief defendant in three show trials, a political prisoner, a secret negotiator with South Africa's rulers, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, president of his country, and a statesman who held South Africa together long enough to find reconciliation and the path to prosperity.
But despite all this, Mandela saw himself as a pragmatic politician with one fixed goal: the end of apartheid rule in South Africa. Apart from that one overarching aim, everything else was tactics. If non-violence worked, he was for it; when bombs and guns were winning, he would use them, too. He started or suspended negotiations as circumstances demanded and ignored grievances in favor...