Mandelas Way, Richard Stengel
Mandelas Way, Richard Stengel
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Mandela's Way
Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage

Author: Richard Stengel

Narrator: Richard Stengel

Unabridged: 4 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/30/2010


Synopsis

A compact, profoundly inspiring book that captures the spirit of Nelson Mandela, distilling the South African leader’s wisdom into 15 vital life lessons

We long for heroes and have too few. Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013 at the age of ninety-five, is the closest thing the world has to a secular saint. He liber­ated a country from a system of violent prejudice and helped unite oppressor and oppressed in a way that had never been done before.

Now Richard Stengel, the editor of Time maga­zine, has distilled countless hours of intimate conver­sation with Mandela into fifteen essential life lessons. For nearly three years, including the critical period when Mandela moved South Africa toward the first democratic elections in its history, Stengel collaborated with Mandela on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and traveled with him everywhere. Eating with him, watching him campaign, hearing him think out loud, Stengel came to know all the different sides of this complex man and became a cherished friend and colleague.

In Mandela’s Way, Stengel recounts the moments in which “the grandfather of South Africa” was tested and shares the wisdom he learned: why courage is more than the absence of fear, why we should keep our rivals close, why the answer is not always either/or but often “both,” how important it is for each of us to find something away from the world that gives us pleasure and satisfaction—our own garden. Woven into these life lessons are remarkable stories—of Mandela’s child­hood as the protégé of a tribal king, of his early days as a freedom fighter, of the twenty-seven-year imprison­ment that could not break him, and of his fulfilling remarriage at the age of eighty.

This uplifting book captures the spirit of this extraordinary man—warrior, martyr, husband, statesman, and moral leader—and spurs us to look within ourselves, reconsider the things we take for granted, and contemplate the legacy we’ll leave behind.

About The Author

RICHARD STENGEL is the editor of Time magazine. He collaborated with Nelson Mandela on Mandela’s bestselling 1993 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and later served as coproducer of the 1996 Oscar-nominated documentary Mandela. He is also the author of January Sun and You’re Too Kind. Stengel is married to Mary Pfaff and they have two sons.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Maria on February 19, 2015

Interesting and inspiring book whose main characteristic is the fact that the Author had access to Mandela along several years in all sorts of daily situations, so he could get to know the President from a more intimate point of view than is usually depicted. The Author tried to turn what he learned......more

Goodreads review by Tommy on October 16, 2010

An inspiring read. The book presents a much more complex man than we might imagine when we see his glowing countenance in photos and on newsreels. He has worked hard to become the person he is, and has used his life experiences to learn from each encounter and challenge. I walked away from the book......more

Goodreads review by Natalie on February 15, 2017

An interesting, personal and readable portrait of Mandela and his outlook on life. Having the book organised into "15 life lessons" made it very accessible and freed the author to pick out particularly salient points from Mandela's life. (If you're looking for a traditional, chronological biography......more

Goodreads review by Sara on March 05, 2015

Marvelous book, amazing personality yet HUMAN not a superman nor any other form of fiction!He is real.... This book talks maily about leadership, self and others leadership, a disciplined leader, focused, a full human being after many years of prison, inside prison and out,...yea he learned it in the......more

Goodreads review by Donniesands on December 16, 2014

A very interesting and simple read. My only regret is that it reads like a leadership book more than general lessons on life. But it gives a great image of the imperfect but fantastic leader. It is divided into 15 lessons with examples from personal moments in Mandela's life. I enjoyed it......more


Quotes

“There is no man I admire more than Nelson Mandela. Rick Sten­gel’s wise and moving book captures the Nelson Mandela I have been privileged to know. But reading Mandela’s Way gave me new insights and inspiration. I am confident it will give the same gifts to others. I was inspired anew, and I know others will be too.”
—President Bill Clinton
 
“This delightfully inspiring book is a philosophical guide to how we can aspire to achieve Mandela’s grace and how we can draw upon his great­ness as a model for the comportment of our lives each day.”
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
 
“Nelson Mandela has lived every word of his teaching, whatever the cost. His abiding lesson is about forgiveness. Mandela’s Way takes us into the inner life of one of the most of important heroes of the century. There are lessons here that could radically change the way you live your life.”
—Deepak Chopra, author of The Ultimate Happiness Prescription
 
Mandela’s Way is a timely and welcome reminder of this great man’s political genius, personal integrity, and peerless instinct for survival and triumph. Every world leader should keep Mandela’s Way within easy reach.”
—Tom Brokaw
 
“Here is the wisdom of the world’s greatest moral leader brilliantly distilled by a wonderful writer. From the time they spent working closely together on Mandela’s memoirs, Rick Stengel draws fifteen big life lessons plus hundreds of smaller insights, while also giving us an intimate and astonishingly honest look at this inspiring human being.”
—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Einstein
 
Mandela’s Way is an electrically exciting, direct, and vivid way of making greatness tangible, human and complex. Richard Stengel has honed all the elegance and lucidity of thirty years of brilliant cultural and political writing into a book to illuminate, to inspire—and to endure.”
—Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road and The Lady and the Monk