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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Historical, political & military
Within Argentina, Juan Domingo Peron continues to be the subject of
exaggerated and diametrically opposed views. A dictator, a great
leader, the hero of the working classes and Argentina's "first
worker"; a weak and spineless man dependent on his strongerwilled
wife; a Latin American visionary; a traitor, responsible for
dragging Argentina into a modern, socially just 20th century
society or, conversely, destroying for all time a prosperous nation
and fomenting class war and unreasonable aspirations among his
client base. Outside Argentina, Peron remains overshadowed by his
second wife, Evita. The life of this fascinating and unusual man,
whose charisma, political influence and controversial nature
continue to generate interest, remains somewhat of a mystery to the
rest of the world. Peron remains a key figure in Argentine
politics, still able to occupy so much of the political spectrum as
to constrain the development of viable alternatives. Jill Hedges
explores the life and personality of Peron and asks why he remains
a political icon despite the 'negatives' associated with his
extreme personalism.
The rivalry between the brilliant seventeenth-century Italian
architects Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini is the stuff
of legend. Enormously talented and ambitious artists, they met as
contemporaries in the building yards of St. Peter's in Rome, became
the greatest architects of their era by designing some of the most
beautiful buildings in the world, and ended their lives as bitter
enemies. Engrossing and impeccably researched, full of dramatic
tension and breathtaking insight, "The Genius in the Design" is the
remarkable tale of how two extraordinary visionaries schemed and
maneuvered to get the better of each other and, in the process,
created the spectacular Roman cityscape of today.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is South Africa's fifth post-apartheid president. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as the founder of the National Union of Mineworkers. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February 1990, Ramaphosa was at the head of the reception committee that greeted him. Chosen as secretary general of the African National Congress in 1991, Ramaphosa led the ANC's team in negotiating the country's post-apartheid constitution. Thwarted in his ambition to succeed Mandela, he exchanged political leadership for commerce, ultimately becoming one of the country's wealthiest businessmen, a breeder of exotic cattle, and a philanthropist.
This fully revised and extended edition charts Ramaphosa's early life and education, and his career in trade unionism - including the 1987 21-day miners' strike when he committed the union to the wider liberation struggle - politics, and constitution-building. Extensive new chapters explore his contribution to the National Planning Commission, the effects of the Marikana massacre on his political prospects, and the real story behind his rise to the deputy presidency of the country in 2014. They set out the constraints Ramaphosa faced as Jacob Zuma's deputy, and explain how he ultimately triumphed in the election of the ANC's new president in 2017. The book concludes with an analysis of the challenges Ramaphosa faces as the country's fifth post-apartheid president.
Based on numerous personal conversations with Ramaphosa over the past decade, and on rich interviews with many of the subject's friends and contemporaries, this new biography offers a frank appraisal of one of South Africa's most enigmatic political figures.
A wide-ranging political biography of diplomat, Nobel prize winner,
and civil rights leader Ralph Bunche. A legendary diplomat,
scholar, and civil rights leader, Ralph Bunche was one of the most
prominent Black Americans of the twentieth century. The first
African American to obtain a political science Ph.D. from Harvard
and a celebrated diplomat at the United Nations, he was once so
famous he handed out the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Yet
today Ralph Bunche is largely forgotten. In The Absolutely
Indispensable Man, Kal Raustiala restores Bunche to his rightful
place in history. He shows that Bunche was not only a singular
figure in midcentury America; he was also one of the key architects
of the postwar international order. Raustiala tells the story of
Bunche's dramatic life, from his early years in prewar Los Angeles
to UCLA, Harvard, the State Department, and the heights of global
diplomacy at the United Nations. After narrowly avoiding
assassination Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize for his
ground-breaking mediation of the first Arab-Israeli conflict,
catapulting him to popular fame. A central player in some of the
most dramatic crises of the Cold War, he pioneered conflict
management and peacekeeping at the UN. But as Raustiala argues, his
most enduring achievement was his work to dismantle European
empire. Bunche perceptively saw colonialism as the central issue of
the 20th century and decolonization as a project of global racial
justice. From marching with Martin Luther King to advising
presidents and prime ministers, Ralph Bunche shaped our world in
lasting ways. This definitive biography gives him his due. It also
reminds us that postwar decolonization not only fundamentally
transformed world politics, but also powerfully intersected with
America's own civil rights struggle.
Born in 1917 in Bizana in the Eastern Cape, Oliver Reginald Tambo became Nelson Mandela's legal partner and a prominent member of the ANC's Youth League.
Following the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Tambo left South Africa to set up the ANC's international mission. As President of the ANC in exile, he led the fight against apartheid on both the diplomatic and military fronts. He died in 1993 on the eve of liberation. Tambo had a profound influence on the ANC during the difficult years of uncertainty, loneliness and homesickness in exile. His simplicity, his nurturing style, his genuine respect for all people seemed to bring out the best in them.
This is the story of one of South Africa's great sons - 'the most loved leader', the Moses who led his people to the promised land but did not live to enter it.
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For My Legionaries
(Hardcover)
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu; Introduction by Kerry Bolton; Contributions by Lucian Tudor
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R959
Discovery Miles 9 590
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Ships in 12 - 19 working days
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