As sketched by Madar, Manning is an intelligent and complex young man. He was an ‘openly gay’ teenager who ‘refused to utter the “under God” part of the pledge of allegiance’. By 2006, Manning was socialising with ‘people in the [Washington] DC political world’. In 2007, he joined the army. Manning’s tumultuous army career came to a halt in 2010 when he was charged with releasing secret documents to WikiLeaks. These documents include video footage of a US helicopter killing several men in Baghdad. Manning has been condemned by politicians and has endured a heavily publicised series of court proceedings.

The Passion of Bradley Manning is certainly passionate. Madar displays a vivid indignation at Manning’s treatment at the hands of the US government. He rightly criticises Barack Obama for arriving ‘singing the praises of whistleblowers’, only to refuse assistance to Manning because the young man has broken the law.

Madar frequently uses the term ‘our’ to refer to American readers. This can leave those of us who are based outside the United States feeling overlooked. He argues that the ‘United States is an increasingly depoliticised’ society. This is naïve. How can Manning’s incarceration and deprivation of liberty not be ‘political’? Is the so-called ‘war on terror’ apolitical?

The Passion of Bradley Manning is a reminder of the punishments faced by those who publicly challenge the myth that the US military is a ‘global protector of freedom’. Readers will (or at least should) hope that Manning one day receives the justice he deserves.