Loosing the Bonds

by Bob Massie

"Loosing the Bonds" is popular, narrative history at its best: a consuming, dramatically told David and Goliath story about the moral power of justice triumphing over powerful forces of oppression.Apartheid-the brutal enforcement of racial segregation by South Africa's white government--became official policy in post-World War II South Africa, coinciding with the rise of the civil-rights movement in the United States. From the Kennedy administration on, Washington spoke against apartheid but, pressured by American corporations making big profits in South Africa and the geopolitics of the cold war, did little to foster change. Anti-apartheid activists turned their attention instead to South Africa's Achilles heel: its economy. Soon institutional America-churches, foundations, union and government pension funds-joined activists and college students in pressuring American business to get out of South Africa. Their efforts built to a climax in the 1980s, when South Africa became the burning issue of the day, the United States imposed punitive sanctions, and the apartheid regime collapsed.

Robert Kinloch Massie re-creates the passions and struggles of these years, deftly showing how American and South African politics, money and personalities were intertwined in these years. Populated with real-life heroes and villains, bursting with colorful incident, "Loosing the Bonds" is an inspiring chronicle of one of the most important struggles of our lifetime.

Genres: History, Africa

928 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

Bob Massie has spent fifty years telling stories—in books, newspapers, film, education, and now in a world called Wilderland. He is the author of five previous books and a former syndicated newspaper columnist whose writing career began in the 1980s with Gospel Light Publications, Here’s Life Publishers, and Campus Crusade for Christ.

His earlier fiction includes Mortal Intent, and he wrote two syndicated column over the years
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Massie is also a filmmaker and entrepreneur. He has written and produced four documentary films, including Are We Safer Today, which reunited the living members of the 9/11 Commission for the first time in twenty years. The film streams nationally on public television, and his productions have earned a dozen Telly Awards.

A pilot, painter, Newfields docent, and member of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, Massie and his wife, Dianna, have three grown children and twelve grandchildren for whom The Mingles in Wilderland was written.

He is the founder of StoryKeepers Press, continuing The Mingles in Wilderland series and StoryKeepers Illustrated Classics.

Reviews

[J.c. Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best comprehensive narrative history of the anti-apartheid movement I have come across.