Nelson Mandela’s place in history is secure: he was one of the best known prisoners in the world, the first president of post-apartheid South Africa, and a global icon with a degree of moral authority matched by very few. This biography explores his various identities—dashing young urbanite, charismatic nationalist politician, underground military commander and Black Pimpernel, tried, convicted, and a political prisoner for 27 years; president of a democratic South Africa—and assesses these independently of his nigh-mythic status.