Mandela: The Aristocrat and the Revolution (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781350522121)

The first biography of Nelson Mandela written by an African scholar, this groundbreaking book offers a radically de-mythologized take on a global icon of anticolonial liberation struggles.

Leading sociologist Xolela Mangcu draws on original interviews and archival research - as well as on his own unique understanding of the complexities of Black South African culture - to offer an important corrective account of Mandela's identity, character, and political career. Mangcu not only sets the record straight about Mandela's Thembu, rather than Xhosa, heritage, but also uncovers a fundamental political pragmatism Mandela developed thanks to his family's strategic alliances with colonialists and through his own Victorian-style education at leading British mission schools. What emerges is a Mandela whose life story belongs less to the realm of hagiography and more to the realm of real-world struggle, with all the contradictions it entails.

Author: Xolela Mangcu
ISBN-10: 1350522120
ISBN-13: 9781350522121
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2026
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 1.00d