Casement, Sir Roger (September 1, 1864, Kingstown, now Dun Laoghaire, near Dublin – August 3, 1916, London [executed]), Irish nationalist. An Irish Protestant, Casement was a British diplomat, and served as consul in a number of African countries under European colonial rule, as well as in Brazil; he became famous for revealing the brutal behavior of the colonial rulers in the Congo Free State. At the same time, he identified increasingly with radical nationalist politics in Ireland. In July 1914 he went to the United States and worked for Clan na Gael, an Irish-American organization …

Barbarians In all warring societies, the topic of the Barbarians played a central role. In this war, it seemed to hinge upon nothing less than the survival, and the critical importance of humankind. Thus, there developed a script that depicted the war as a conflict between one’s own, idealized nation and a demonized enemy. “Civilization” was thereby commonly juxtaposed against “Barbarity.” This dualism was a powerful concept for two reasons. First, the nation-states of the 19th century were defined through a cultural construct that defined one’s own natio…