Ocean State Libraries

This riveting story of the long struggle against apartheid in South Africa explores the reasons why thousands were willing to die in the fighting for civil rights and how their courageous efforts led to the day in 1994 when Nelson Mandela stood before thousands of free South Africans as the nation's first black president.

The peaceful birth of black majority rule in South Africa was a transcendent moment. Many South Africans believe this negotiated revolution to be a miracle: at the very least it was a feat of political magic. One false step along the way could have ignited the race war that had been widely predicted as South Africa's destiny. Patti Waldmeir's colorful and incisive narrative begins with the birth of apartheid itself, and traces the very human drama...