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.
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