Introduction: Crusoe’s Chains

History is full of restless men. Constantly active, averse to being settled, they have been explorers, traders, pirates, crusaders and invaders, the forgers of empires that have come and gone across time, heroes and villains. Such men — if not the drivers of history, at least its colour and movement — have been so ubiquitous that constant activity seems to be part of the essential character of men themselves. Fiction, too, is full of restless men. From the ancient Greek hero Odysseus to the crew of the Starship Enterprise, imagined men have been forced, coerced and have chosen to leave home and family in the name of patriotism, protection, profit and pleasure. The most enduring of these literary figures is the protagonist of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, first published in 1719.