Padraic Kenney, “Dance in Chains: Political Imprisonment in the Modern World” (Oxford UP, 2017)

In Conversation: An OUP Podcast · Dec 7, 2017 · 1h 6m

The idea of being a “political prisoner” may seem timeless. If someone was imprisoned for his or her political beliefs, then that person is in some sense a “political prisoner.” Think of the Tower of London and its various occupants. But, as Padraic Kenney points out in his fascinating new book Dance in Chains: Political Imprisonment in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2017), the modern reality of what we might call “political prisoner-ship” is very different and very modern. He shows that you really couldn’t have modern political prisoners until you had all kinds of other modern…