Book dossier

The devil and Mr. Casement

by Jordan Goodman

"This title features an untold story of the most horrifying crimes and massacres of the twentieth century. In September 1910, the activist and anti-imperialist Roger Casement arrived in the Amazon to investigate reports of widespread human-rights abuses in the vast forests stretching along the Putumayo River. There, the Peruvian entrepreneur Julio Cesar Arana ran an area the size of Belgium as his own private fiefdom; his British-registered company operated a systematic programme of torture, exploitation and murder. Fresh from documenting the scarcely imaginable atrocities perpetrated by King Leopold in the Congo, Casement was confronted with an all-too recognizable scenario. He uncovered an appalling catalogue of abuse: nearly 30,000 Indians had died to produce four thousand tons of rubber. From the Peruvian rainforests to the City of London, Jordan Goodman recounts a crime against humanity that history has almost forgotten, but whose exposure in 1912 sent shockwaves around the world. Drawing on a wealth of original research, The Devil and Mr Casement is a story of colonial exploitation and corporate greed with enormous contemporary political resonance."--Publisher's description.