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Article: Defending dignity from the Congo to Peru
- Article from:
- The Irish Times
- Article date:
- October 17, 2009
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Irish Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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HISTORY: MARY E DALY reviewsThe Devil and Mr Casement: One Man's
Struggle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of DarknessBy
Jordan Goodman, Verso, 288pp, pound(s)17.99
THIS IS the story of the Amazon rubber trade in the early 20th
century; the physical brutality that formed an integral part of the
industry; and the efforts to publicise and eliminate these abuses.
As bicycles became a form of mass transport in Europe and North
America, and motor cars began to follow in their wake, demand for
rubber boomed.
At the time, rubber was produced by tapping trees in the tropical
jungles, but the indigenous populations of the Amazon and the Congo -
who knew the whereabouts of the trees and how ...