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 in a hard-won, enduring bond.

Originally published: Playing the enemy. New York : Penguin Press, 2008.

Breakfast in Houghton -- Minister of Justice -- Separate amenities -- Bagging the croc -- Different planets -- Ayatollah Mandela -- Tiger king -- Mask -- Bitter-enders -- Romancing the general -- "Address their hearts" -- Captain and the president -- Springbok serenade -- Silvermine -- Doubting Thomases -- Number six jersey -- "Nelson! Nelson!" -- Blood in the throat -- Love thine enemy.