Everyone should know the life story of Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of all time, the first black president of South Africa, the most famous African, and a major world statesman. His inspiring life receives a fresh retelling in this new biography written especially for students and general readers. This volume is an enjoyable, authoritative, and balanced way to not only understand a great man, but also to understand a critical time in world history and race relations. Mandela's quest for racial justice for black South Africans as a leader of the African National Congress led to twenty-seven years of imprisonment. South African Apartheid consumed the attention of the world, coming to a head in the 1980s. With intense international pressure on the Apartheid government, Mandela was finally freed in 1990. Through the landmark presidency of South Africa and post Nobel Peace Prize years up until today, he has continued as a peacemaker and agent for change. Chapter 1 covers his birth into a strong Xhosa family and clan, with cultural, historical, and geographical context, and the next chapter follows his elite education path, taking into consideration the forces and people who helped shape the future leader. Chapter 3 discusses his law practice, African National Congress work, and his first wife. Chapters 4-6 continue with his growing political involvement and family. Chapter 7 and 8 deal with the long imprisonment and then freedom. The final chapters discuss his presidency and Nobel Peace Prize and life today. A timeline, photo essay, and selected bibliography complement the narrative.

As the most influential and powerful country on the entire continent of Africa, an understanding of South Africa's past and its present trends is crucial in appreciating where South Africans are going to, and from where they have come. South Africa changed dramatically in 1994 when apartheid was dismantled, and it became a democratic state. Since 2000, when the previous edition appeared, further big changes occurred, with the rise of new political leaders and of a new black middle class. There were also serious problems in governance, in public health, and the economy, but with a remarkable popular resilience too. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of South Africa contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 600 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country's politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about South Africa.

Orb and Sceptre brings together recent cutting-edge work on British imperialism by Australian researchers closely associated with Norman Etherington, one of Australia's most eminent scholars in this field. Orb and Sceptre reflects the trajectory of British Empire history in the academy over the last forty years. Demands for new nationalist histories for decolonised territories have combined with renewed attention to the role of the periphery in the making and unmaking of empires. This has formed an explosive mix that has blown apart traditional conceptions of Empire and Commonwealth history. The colonial construction of knowledge is a principal theme in Orb and Sceptre. Former colonies and dependencies looked to a fresh generation of historians to write their histories, generally conceived as grand narratives of escape from imperial shackles. At the same time, a new wave of scholars influenced by feminism, neo-Marxism, dependency theory and postcolonialism laid the groundwork for a renaissance in Empire and Commonwealth history. These historians have been rediscovering the links that continue to connect former colonies to their imperial pasts. This book offers: A showcase of new studies in British Imperialism by Australian and international scholars, highlighting cutting-edge approaches and areas of interest from cultural studies to biography and landscape studies, as well as traditional areas such as political history, immigration, and military history; Exciting new research on Australian, Asian and African history; and A bibliography of the works of Norman Etherington. The book is enlivened by a wide range of illustrative material, including photos, drawings and maps. Orb and Sceptre is a festschrift in honour of Norman Etherington, one of Australia's most eminent scholars of imperialism.