Book

Playing the Enemy

Name: Playing the Enemy
ISBN: 9780143115724

Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

John Carlin

Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · July 28, 2009

Reading lane: South Africa History

Read the book that inspired the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning 2009 film INVICTUS featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Daymon, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Race & Discrimination South Africa History Rugby civil rights

book club african history

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At a Glance

Why This Clicks

History in Motion

A compact, scene-driven history with enough sweep for insight and enough tension to keep turning pages.

Come here for

A history told with narrative momentum
Mandela, sport, and national symbolism

Expect

Civil rights and statecraft in close view
A read that suits both discussion and performance

Book Details

Authors: John Carlin
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: July 28, 2009
Format: Print & ebook
Theme: South Africa History · Race & Discrimination
Reading lane: South Africa History

Affinity

Publisher Categories

South Africa History
Race & Discrimination
Rugby

About This Book

Read full description

Read the book that inspired the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning 2009 film INVICTUS featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Daymon, directed by Clint Eastwood. Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament- the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. 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.