Bill Keller recently reviewed John Carlin's Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation in The New York Times. Keller's review is glowing. I worry a bit that the book will be somewhat deterministic. The 1995 World Cup marked a nice moment for South Africa, and a profoundly powerful symbolic one at that, but South Africa's democratic transition probably did not rise and fall based on Mandela's willingness to embrace the Springboks. I am working on an article on rugby, race, and nationalism in South Africa since 1994 and so have more than a passing interest in receiving my copy of Carlin's book.
