What is it that political prisoners do? What part does the imprisoned activist play in the conflict between regimes and their opponents around the world? Why, in short, are there political prisoners? The answers to these questions may seem obvious, as political incarceration today seems to offer the clearest evidence of a repressive regime, and of a determined political opposition. Yet surely there are more effective alternatives, for both states and their opponents, than incarceration. Imprisoned opponents, like those of the African National Congress in South Africa, or of Solidarity in Poland, or of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland--just to mention a few examples from the last quarter-century--may eventually claim or share power, while those who are executed or exiled will not pose the same threat. From the opposition's point of view, in turn, imprisonment, even though it deprives the movement of a valued contributor, is often a badge of honor, and central to the story of contestation with the regime. So does prison contribute to the struggle, or is it a hindrance?
Remarkably, the political prisoner has never received attention as a historical actor, our perceptions of them awash in cliches and archetypes. We think immediately of Nelson Mandela, or perhaps Vaclav Havel: good men, engaged in a moral struggle against bad regimes. But can that really be an acceptable definition, when Adolph Hitler too was a political prisoner? Can we understand what political prisoners are and what they do if we do not include those whose goals or ethics are different from our own?
Dance in Chains--the title inspired by a song composed by a socialist on death row in a Warsaw prison 120 years ago--draws upon research in Poland, Ireland, South Africa and includes over a dozen different regimes over the last 150 years. These cases are not primarily comparative, but serve as pillars holding up a global investigation of the phenomenon. In each case, generation after generation of political opponents has gone to prison since at least the turn of the twentieth century. Yet they also vary widely, as regimes ranging from communist to fascist to colonial to democratic has imprisoned an equally wide range of opponents. Taken together, they yield a sufficiently wide spectrum to allow the reader to understand one of the central characters of modern political history.
Industry Reviews
"The concept of a political prisoner is important for all movements that oppose or wish to bring down dictatorships and oppressive systems. Every political prisoner is at times an object of respect and disdain; he is both esteemed and stigmatized. Solzhenitsyn wrote that prison saved him from the disgrace of collaborating with a totalitarian regime. That may well be, but we should not wish anyone this way of saving his soul. Padraic Kenney's book describes the many ambiguities of being a political prisoner and of being perceived as one. It is sure to invite impassioned responses from past, present, and future political prisoners."--Adam Michnik, Editor-in-Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza"Modernity may have been emancipatory but, as Padraic Kenney shows in this fascinating and wide-ranging study, it also gave birth to a new kind of 'political' imprisonment. Taking the reader inside the prison and vividly documenting both the instances of repression and spaces for manoeuvre that the experience of incarceration involves, Kenney has produced one of the most original studies of modern politics in years. From Eastern Europe to South Africa and from Irish rebels to contemporary terrorists, Dance in Chains also shows how to connect globe-spanning world history with finely textured social history. A triumph."--Samuel Moyn, author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History"Extremely informative, comprehensive, detailed, and extremely well-written. In the contemporary world of inter- and intra-state conflicts, imprisonment, torture, and the new state language of 'extraordinary rendition' (read kidnap and abduction) which seeks to obscure what is really happening on the ground, it is all the more important that we understand how the political prisoner has been defined/redefined and, most importantly, treated and mistreated over time. This book will be of immense value to the scholar of prison studies but equally to the lay person who seeks to find some understanding of how and why political imprisonment evolved over the past century and more and how, unfortunately, it will remain with us for some time to come."--Laurence McKeown, author of Out of Time: Irish Republican Prisoners Long Kesh, 1972 -2000"If Foucault's Discipline and Punish described how disciplinary consciousness appeared in early 19th century Europe, Kenney's Dance in Chains describes how a new subjectivity as a political prisoner emerged as a global phenomenon in the 20th century. Political prisoners defined their subjectivity not by protesting the prison but by using it to shape themselves into new political agents. Kenney has written a critical genealogy against which we can understand how being a political prisoner exploded into popular consciousness and human rights discourse, and even how incarceration came to be, for many, a prerequisite for political activity itself."--Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Democracy
