Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa

by Patti Waldmeir

Book Overview

The late 1980s were a dismal time inside South Africa. Mandela's African National Congress was banned. Thousands of ANC supporters were jailed without charge. Government hit squads assassinated and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393039978
• ISBN13: 9780393039979
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Book so far

Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa This book came on time and was delivered directly to my place of residence within two days. So far this book is worth more than just an assignment for class. This book also helps me to see another side of conflict that most people may never see in their life time; unless they live within a collective culture where group needs are put before the individual self.

A Great History Book

Anatomy of a Miracle is one of those history books you never forget. It does such a good job putting you there. You feel like you are at the meeting between Mandela and DeKlerk. This is history at its best. Anyone interested in Current Events or the History of South Africa and its transformation from Apartheid and White Rule to One Man One Vote and Democracy needs to read this book. I had no idea that Mandela and the South African government had been in negotiation long before Mandela's release. I also had no idea how well Mandela used his ability to speak Afrikaaner and his knowledge of Afrikaaner History to while negotiating to end Apartheid. You see the challenges DeKlerk, Mandela, and all of South Africa had to overcome. And they did. This is a short book, but after reading this you will become an expert on the events that led to the end of Apartheid and the beginning of Democracy in South Africa. This is a great book.

Insightful and dramatic!

Reads like a cloak and dagger thriller at times. This is a riveting account of the end of apartheid and the birth of democracy in a society that should be, by all rights, engaged in civil war at this time. Instead, Ms. Waldmeir gives us the reasons, historically and diplomatically, as to why this amazing transition took place in relative peace. She tries to give a fair representation of the roles of all the major players in this incredibly complex real life drama. I found the writing to be very insightful as an academic work while at the same time it was told as the dramatic, tension filled drama that the story truly is.

Spellbinding and authoritative

This is surely the most informative book to have been written on the subject of South Africa since the end of the white regime. Ms Waldmeiris a superb writer, with a perceptive and self -deprecating wit.May she write heaps more. Dermot Ros