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His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule-to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780143115724","publication_date":"20090728","publisher":"Penguin Publishing Group","slug":"playing-the-enemy","subtitle":"Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation","title":"Playing the Enemy"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS047000","confidence_band":"high","label":"South Africa History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC031000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Race & Discrimination","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SPO056000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Rugby","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS047000","confidence_band":"high","label":"South Africa History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC031000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Race & Discrimination","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SPO056000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Rugby","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"South Africa History","score":1,"slug":"south-africa-history"},{"label":"Race & Discrimination","score":1,"slug":"race-discrimination"},{"label":"Rugby","score":1,"slug":"rugby"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy South Africa History","Good for readers interested in civil rights","Good for readers who enjoy South Africa History and Race & Discrimination."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Melissa Fay Greene"],"book_id":"9780306815171","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780306815171.jpg?v=20260406T231758Z%3A2026-04-06T23%3A17%3A58Z","score":12.9066,"title":"Praying for Sheetrock","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780306815171"},{"authors":["Cedric J. 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