Sir Roger Casement is remembered chiefly as an Irish
patriot, hanged by the British for treason for his part in the rebellion of
1916. As Jordan Goodman reminds us, Casement had previously been known as a
British diplomat with a conscience, “the most universally lauded investigator
of human rights abuses of his day.” The indefatigable Casement had helped
uncover the cruel slavery of the Congo Free State,
where millions of Africans were killed or maimed by the pitiless overseers of
rubber plantations. The Devil and Mr.
Casement
recounts a less remembered episode: Casement’s investigation of a
murderous British-based rubber company that exploited natives in the Amazon.
Goodman’s journalistic narrative is a reminder of the devastation that greed
can cause and the good work that can be done by a few good men.
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