The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma [Paperback]

James Mawdsley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2002

A startling account of an evil regime and one young man's efforts to defy it.

Twenty-eight-year-old James Mawdsley spent much of the past four years in grim Burmese prisons. The Iron Road is his story, and the story of the regime that jailed him, the way it jails, tortures, and kills hundreds of Burmese each day.

Mawdsley was working in New Zealand when he learned about the struggle of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel laureate who is under house arrest. Outraged, he went to Burma, staged a one-man protest, and was jailed.

There his own amazing story begins. He is tortured, interrogated, released, jailed again. He turns his incarceration into a contest of wits -- going on a hunger strike, toasting the year 2000 with a cigar and "prison champagne," and requesting "1 packet of freedom, 1 bunch human rights, and 2 bottles of democracy." At the same time, he asks himself: What leads those of us in peaceful democracies to ignore others' suffering, just because it is happening "over there," to "them"?

James Mawdsley is a hero in a generation said to lack heroism. The Iron Road -- named for a torture in which skin is scraped from bone with a piece of iron -- is an urgent call for an end to human rights abuses in Burma and is a keen analysis of the totalitarian mind-set. And it is the story, at once moving and terrifying, of how one person can further the cause of justice through sheer will and determination.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his first book, Mawdsley painstakingly describes his nearly unimaginable experiences as a political prisoner in Burma, recalling almost matter-of-factly the cruelty, deprivation, sorrow, horror and bureaucratic stupidity he endured, and his calculated opposition to authority. Three times he set himself up for arrest in Burma during the 1990s in support of the democratic movements that fought the repressive military junta. In a thorough but occasionally meandering narrative, the author vividly recounts sacrifice and heroism little known in the West. He tells of the brave and generous Burmese revolutionaries supporters of the National League for Democracy, which overwhelmingly won a 1990 election that was disregarded by the junta who daily faced the threat of encountering the larger, better-armed government forces. He also takes the reader inside his own mind, that of a quiet revolutionary who challenged authority by demanding his rights to food, books and letters and by calling for humane treatment for his fellow prisoners. Mawdsley also recounts his evolution from angry advocate of justice to a Christian armed with God's love (though as a Brit, he doesn't describe himself as "born-again"). His use of British terms may briefly befuddle some American readers. Yet his story of personal commitment to a struggle on the other side of the planet and of the Burmese who give their lives for that struggle buttresses everyone but despots and their minions. Photos and maps.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Englishman Mawdsley's passionate narrative stridently calls attention to the chronic abuse of human rights by the Burmese state. On three occasions, Mawdsley penetrated the Burmese border to demonstrate publicly on behalf of Burmese political freedom and elicit worldwide response through his arrest. He was immensely successful, inspiring efforts by the United Nations, the Vatican, and the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to address the Burmese situation. Mawdsley's narrative and diary excerpts describing his experiences in solitary confinement form a significant subplot, and it is especially instructive to see some of his early na‹vet‚ give way to a sense of realpolitik as his imprisonment lengthened. A young man from a broken home who dropped out of university and failed in an attempted suicide, Mawdsley has clearly grown into a noble cause on which to focus his life. It is this vision, related in simple, sharply etched prose, that drives his compelling account. Recommended for all libraries John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: North Point Press; 1st edition (August 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865476373
• ISBN-13: 978-0865476370
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,045,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Iron Road is Well Worth Traveling!, October 22, 2002

By 

Merna P. Lovenuts "frogzbreath" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma (Paperback)

I first heard of James Mawdsley when he was interviewed on the program Worldview on NPR.Even though I had only read one book in the last year and a half previous to hearing the NPR interview, the experiences he recounted and the ways in which he handled them touched me so much I wrote down the name of his book and put in my first order to Amazon.com. I bought this book bracing myself for a hard, serious read (I had never voulunarily ventured into the realm of non-fiction before.) This book captured my attention from the first paragraph and proved to be the furthest thing from a "hard read" - I couldn't put it down! It was: touching, enlightening, sad, inspirational, but most of all unexpectedly FUNNY at times (thanks to James's often self-depricating sense of humor and his evolving "what matters most" outlook on life.) I can not recommend this book enough! It has turned me into a lover of non-fiction and more importantly it has made me aware of human rights abuses that are going on in Burma right now!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars taut and well written autobiography, August 17, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma (Paperback)

In 1988 though her democratic political party won the national elections in a romp, the military refused to let go of power and instead placed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, killed many of her supporters, and drove others into exile. When British citizen James Mawdsley learned about the incarceration of the Burmese Nobel Laureate, he became outraged. Mawdsley became a one-man band staging protests and distributing antigovernment paraphernalia and is finally arrested and sentenced for seventeen years for various crimes that will shock western sensitivities to learn the felonis he committed.

Mr. Mawdsley tells his story on why he chose an activist path to shake up more then just the Burmese government, but to wake up the western democracies. Most readers will have dual feelings about the author, as his fanatic behavior seems suicidal yet courageous making him a fascinating character. The autobiography is taut and well written, gripping the audience from start to finish and deserves a large readership as the lesson learned is don't sit passively by whining, take action even small steps matter.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Are Giants Among Us, April 30, 2008

By 

Aaron Gutsell (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma (Paperback)

James Mawdsley is a brave man. He has single-handedly taken on the Big Brotheresque regime of Burma with a considerable degree of success, involving the governments of various Western countries and organizations such as the Vatican and the UN. Having camped with disenfranchised minorities on the Burmese border, Mawdsley decides to go into Burma where he briefly distributes pro-democracy pamphlets and plays freedom songs before being arrested. The fact that he is western prevents him from being immediately beaten down, executed, or horribly tortured. He is roughed up, and subjected to some torture, but the regime never comes close to breaking him, and in fact only strengthens his will. Each time he was released, Mawdsley regained his health and went back into Burma, despite the fact that he had been tortured on the previous trip. Receiving help from a network of people beforehand, he ultimately went in alone so he wouldn't endanger anyone else. James' remarkable story is a diary of months in prison, his longing for food, the small tricks he learned to pass the time, and the solidarity that was felt between the other prisoners and even the guards. When he commented to a guard that he was under a seventeen year sentence, the guard shrugged and replied to Mawdsley, "I am here for thirty years." Though sometimes drifting into preaching, the book is focused and contains some excellent quotations from those who have similarly experienced totalitarianism, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. "The Iron Road" is an eye-opening glimpse of the power of one determined individual to change the world.