An illumination of the life of diplomat Roger Casement.
At the time of his execution for treason in 1916, few were aware who Roger Casement was or what he represented. Since then, he has been lauded for his investigations into Belgian brutality in the Congo Free State and human rights abuses in the Peruvian rubber industry, but much else about him has remained obscured behind speculation about his sexuality and secret Irish revolutionary activity while in service of the British Empire. As such, his place in history has been ill-defined and multifarious: his involvement in the waging of war followed by the delicate negotiation of peace; his republicanism perceived variously as an eccentric enthusiasm and as a threat to the British Empire; his contemporary legacy overshadowed by the Black Diaries of disputed legitimacy, detailing alleged liaisons with young men.
In Casement, Angus Mitchell illuminates a life shrouded in mystery, which operated in the conflicting spheres of British foreign diplomacy and Irish revolutionary activity. Considering Casement’s rebellious nature, Mitchell asks if it was motivated as much by his “incorrigible” Irishness as by his exposure of the appalling crimes against humanity that he witnessed in Africa and South America. Most significantly, Casement demonstrates that his legacy cannot be ascribed to just one cause, whether as a critic of global colonialism or as a founding father of the modern Irish nation-state. Casement’s true commitment was to a universal understanding based on humanity, tolerance, and justice.
Arvustused
An original and vivid profile of a great but enigmatic man. -- Professor Declan Kiberd * The Irish Times * 'Mitchell's lucid biography is the best short life we have ... informed by his own extensive research ...' -- Dr Margaret O'Callaghan * History Ireland * 'a fine monograph'. -- John Banville * The New York Review of Books *
Contents
Secrets and Silences // 1
Early Life (18641882) // 19
Africa (18831904) // 33
Ireland (19041914) // 81
Brazil (19061913) // 103
Irish Volunteers (19131914) // 151
America and Germany (19141916) // 179
Easter Rising (1916) // 223
Trial and Execution (1916) // 243
Afterlife and Afterword (19162026) // 291
Selected Further Reading // 331
Notes // 335
Index // 371
Angus Mitchell has traced Roger Casements movements and paper trails across London, Belfast, Dublin, Berlin, New York, and the far reaches of Africa and South America for over three decades, unearthing inconvenient truths from the archives buried recesses. His groundbreaking editions of Casements writings The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement, Sir Roger Casements Heart of Darkness: The 1911 Documents, and One Bold Deed of Open Treason: The Berlin Diary of Roger Casement 191416 have reframed scholarly understanding of one of the modern worlds most enigmatic revolutionary intellectuals, and recovered essential perspectives on empire, the archive, decolonisation, and humanitarian activism. He is equally committed to critical pedagogy and his role as a public historian, using film and exhibition curation to challenge academic consensus and bring secret histories to wider audiences.
Mitchells research has appeared in the Journal of Victorian Culture, Women's History Review, Irish Historical Studies, The Scottish Historical Review, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. He lives in Ireland.
