The Other Hand

The Other Hand, also known as Little Bee, is a 2008 novel by British author Chris Cleave. It is a dual narrative story about a Nigerian asylum-seeker and a British magazine editor, who meet during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta, and are re-united in England several years later. Cleave, inspired as a university student by his temporary employment in an asylum detention centre, wrote the book in an attempt to humanise the plight of asylum-seekers in Britain. The novel examines the treatment of refugees by the asylum system, as well as issues of British colonialism, globalization, political violence and personal accountability.

The novel was published by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. Sales were initially slow, but increased as a result of "word-of-mouth" publicity, with the book eventually ranking 13th on the 2009 Sunday Times bestseller list. It has also been ranked \#1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The novel has received mixed reviews from critics. It has been praised for its focus on underlying human decency; however, some reviewers felt its events were contrived. The two protagonists have been juxtaposed, with less sympathy evoked by Surrey-born Sarah than Nigerian-refugee Little Bee. The novel was nominated for the 2008 Costa Book Awards and a 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. A film adaptation is now in pre-production, and will be produced by and star Julia Roberts. Amazon Studios will be distributing the film.

## Background

Cleave spent his early childhood in West Africa, which he credits for having partially inspired The Other Hand. Further inspiration came from Cleaves's temporary employment while studying experimental psychology at the University of Oxford. During the summer, Cleave painted underpasses, gardened and picked up litter, and hoped to use this experience to write a book. His final job was at Campsfield House in Oxfordshire, an immigration detention centre. Cleave spent three days serving food to residents from war zones including Somalia, Eritrea and the Balkans. He explained: "I got talking with some of them and said why are you here? Why are you in prison? It's not illegal and yet we concentrate them in these places. It's a text-book definition of a concentration camp. The conditions are appalling. I was shocked enough for that to be the end of my light comedy book of my amusing summers working as a labourer." Cleave believes he would not have written the novel were he not a parent, as he does not wish for his children "to grow up into a world that is callous and stupid."

In 2005, an incident inspired Cleave to write The Other Hand. Four years previously, in 2001, an Angolan asylum-seeker named Manuel Bravo had arrived in England with his 9-year-old son. After being detained in an immigration centre for four years, officials decided to forcibly deport Bravo and his son back to Angola the next morning. During the night, Bravo committed suicide, aware that his son, who was still a minor, could not be deported unaccompanied. Cleave felt compelled to write about the "dirty secret" that is the British immigration system, and to do so in such a way as to showcase the "unexpected humour" of the refugees wherever possible, in order to make the book "an enjoyable and compelling read" for his audience. Cleave explained:

> I think the job is important because there's something you can do in fiction that you don't have the space to do in news media, which is to give back a measure of humanity to the subjects of an ongoing story. When I started to imagine the life of one asylum seeker in particular, rather than asylum seekers in general, the scales fell from my eyes in regard to any ideological position I might have held on the issue. It's all about exploring the mystery and the wonder of an individual human life. Life is precious, whatever its country of origin.

## Plot

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, and Sarah O'Rourke (née Summers), a magazine editor from Surrey. After spending two years detained in a British immigration detention centre, Little Bee is illegally released after a fellow refugee performs sexual favours for a detention officer. She travels to the home of Sarah and her husband Andrew, whom she met two years previously on a beach in the Niger Delta. Sarah is initially unaware of Little Bee's presence, until Andrew, haunted by guilt of their shared past, commits suicide. Little Bee reveals herself to Sarah on the day of Andrew's funeral, and helps her to care for her four-year-old son Charlie.

Through a mutual reflection on their past, it is revealed that Sarah and Andrew were on holiday at the time of their meeting with Little Bee. The trip was an attempt to salvage their marriage after Andrew discovered Sarah had been unfaithful to him, embarking on an affair with Home Office employee Lawrence Osborn. While walking on the beach one morning, they were approached by a then 14-year-old Little Bee, and her older sister Nkiruka. The girls were being pursued by soldiers who had burned down their village and intended for there to be no witnesses left alive. The soldiers arrived and murdered a guard from the O'Rourkes' hotel, but offered to spare the lives of the girls if Andrew would amputate his own middle finger with a machete. Afraid, and believing the soldiers would murder the girls anyway, Andrew refused, but Sarah complied in his place. The soldiers took both girls away, leaving the couple in doubt as to whether the soldiers would leave one girl alive in response, as they promised.

Little Bee explains that although Nkiruka was gang raped, murdered, and cannibalised by the soldiers, she was allowed to escape, and stowed away in the cargo hold of a ship bound for England. Sarah allows Little Bee to stay with her, intent on helping her become a legal British citizen. Lawrence, who is still involved with Sarah, disapproves of her actions and contemplates turning Little Bee in to the police. When he informs Little Bee that he is considering this, she responds that allowing her to stay would be what is best for Sarah, so if Lawrence turns her in, Little Bee will get revenge by telling his wife Linda about his affair. The two reach an uneasy truce. After spending several days together, Sarah, Lawrence, Little Bee and Charlie take a trip to the park. Charlie goes missing, and Little Bee calls the police while Sarah searches for him. Although he is quickly found, the police become suspicious of Little Bee, and discover that she is in the country illegally.

Little Bee is detained and quickly deported back to Nigeria, where she believes she will be killed. Lawrence uses his Home Office connections to track Little Bee's deportation details, and Sarah and Charlie are able to accompany her back home. Sarah believes that Little Bee will be safe as long as she is present, and together they begin collecting stories for a book Andrew had begun, and which Sarah intends to finish on his behalf, about the atrocities committed in the Nigerian oil conflict. During a trip to the same beach where they first encountered one another, soldiers arrive to take Little Bee away. Despite being captured, Little Bee is not dispirited, and instead is ultimately hopeful at the sight of Charlie playing happily with a group of Nigerian children.

## Characters

The primary characters in The Other Hand are Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, and Sarah, a middle-class Englishwoman. Critics have focused on the contrast between the two, with Caroline Elkins of The New York Times commenting that Sarah might initially appear "insipid" to readers, and that when juxtaposed with Little Bee, she seems "unsympathetic, even tiresome". Tim Teeman of The Times deemed Sarah "batty, bizarre and inconsistent, and despite the tragedy she has suffered, unsympathetic", while writing that in contrast: "Goodness peppers every atom of [Little Bee's] being." Other reviewers took an opposite stance. Margot Kaminski of the San Francisco Chronicle found Little Bee's characterisation problematic, writing: "Sometimes she's not convincing, and sometimes she tries too hard to convince. It's too often apparent that Little Bee is not real. This doesn't do justice to her story, and puts the burden back on the author to show that he's representing her, rather than exploiting her." Ed Lake of The Daily Telegraph felt that "Bee's arch reasonableness and implausibly picturesque speech mean she often comes off as a too-cute cipher", and ultimately found Sarah the more convincing character.

The Guardian's Lawrence Norfolk commented that Sarah is a "far from perfect heroine: a semi-neglectful mother and unfaithful wife", but noted that "Cleave does not mock Sarah (and life in Kingston upon Thames) any more than he does Little Bee and her experiences in Nigeria." Norfolk felt that: "For all the characters' faults, none of them is presented as inauthentic or standing for something that we are intended to disbelieve. On the disparity in sympathy for Sarah and Little Bee, Cleave assessed: "Sarah inevitably suffers by proximity to Little Bee, who is much easier to like. If Sarah is more twisted, I think it's because her path through life has necessarily been more convoluted. Little Bee's life is extremely harrowing but it is also very simple – she is swimming very hard against the current, struggling to survive and not to be swept away. Sarah doesn’t have the luxury of knowing in which direction she should swim."

Steve Giergerich of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch felt that Sarah and Little Bee are both "so richly drawn that the supporting characters suffer by comparison." These supporting characters are Andrew, Sarah's husband, Lawrence, her lover, Clarissa her colleague and Charlie, her four-year-old son, who for much of the novel answers only to "Batman" and dresses only in his Batman costume. Sarah Liss of CBC News deemed Andrew and Lawrence the two least-likeable characters in the novel, describing Andrew as "an ordinary guy with self-righteous beliefs who comes up slightly short when he's tested by real life" and Lawrence as a "cowardly yes-man". Cleave agreed that for Lawrence, "career and propriety are more important than basic morality. He's gone so far down that road that he can't come back, and he's made more villainous for all the things he could do but doesn't." Charlie is based on Cleave's oldest son, who similarly spent six months aged four answering only to "Batman". He forms the emotional centre of the novel, holding the adult characters together, and is a study in the early formation of identity. Cleave explained: "Little Bee is a novel about where our individuality lies – which layers of identity are us, and which are mere camouflage. So it's a deliberate choice to use the metaphor of a child who is engaging in his first experiments with identity – in Charlie's case by taking on the persona of a superhero."

## Themes

The Other Hand presents a critique of the British asylum system and attitude towards asylum-seekers. Cleave feels there exists a "general lethargy" about the way asylum-seekers are treated in Britain, and though he believes he is not a political writer, the book begins with an extract from a 2005 UK Home Office publication entitled "United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship". The extract reads: "Britain is proud of its tradition of providing a safe haven for people fleeting (sic) persecution and conflict." Cleave questioned: "If a government can't even successfully proof-read such a fundamental document, how seriously can we take its asylum procedure?" In writing The Other Hand, Cleave hoped to "humanise" the issue for readers. Despite discussions of political violence and British Colonialism within the novel, Sarah L. Courteau, editor of the Wilson Quarterly commented: "You're almost entirely unaware of its politics because the book doesn't deal in abstractions but in human beings." For this reason, she deemed The Other Hand "the best kind of political novel". Emma Philip of The Courier-Mail has opined that while The Other Hand does make political points, readers should not confuse it with a political book, as the "overwhelming beauty" of the relationship between Sarah, Little Bee and Charlie "far outweighs the political message."

The novel also deals with the issue of globalisation. Courteau observed that although Little Bee learns English from newspapers she acquires at the English detention centre, her reference points are still Nigerian, and thus through her narrative voice Cleave "illustrates the forcible dislocations of a globalized world." Cleave chose to explore the issue in The Other Hand as he believes that, although globalisation is frequently discussed, people rarely consider its meaning. He explained: "money can move freely across national borders, but people can't. They're actively prevented from going where the money is. Capital is global, but labour isn't. I believe that's the cause of two major crises that we're involved in as a species – one is a financial crisis and one is a refugee crisis. Imagine a world where money can't move, where capital is stuck in its country of origin, but people can freely move where the work is! That's an alternate interpretation of globalization that would solve a lot of problems." Although Cleave did not intend for the novel to be heavily political, he felt it was important to raise the issue, given the refugee subject matter of The Other Hand.

Marital infidelity features throughout the sections of the novel narrated by Sarah. Cleave discussed: "When you are choosing a lover, you're choosing a philosophy; it's not about sex, it's not about marriage. With Sarah, her unfaithfulness is just one of the symptoms of the fact that she's torn and is going to have to make this strong moral choice." Sarah's storyline also explores her moral culpability following Andrew's suicide. Personal accountability is a central theme of the novel, with Elkins of The New York Times opining that by not focusing on "postcolonial guilt or African angst", Cleave is able to use the novel to challenge readers' conceptions of civility and ethical choice. Margot Kaminski of the San Francisco Chronicle similarly feels that the book delivered a message of anti-complacency, however believes that it does so by "bemoaning the normality of the First World in the face of the horrors of the Third." She deemed The Other Hand essentially a novel about "the borders we draw, and the real damage they inflict".

## Style

Having spent almost two years working on the novel, Cleave decided upon using the dual narrative, as: "This is a story of two worlds: the developed and the developing, and of the mutual incomprehension that sometimes dooms them to antagonism." He found it technically challenging to write from a female perspective, but felt that it prevented him from unwittingly using his own voice to animate the characters, explaining: "It forces me to listen, to think, and to write more precisely." Kaminski accused Cleave of cultural appropriation, asking rhetorically: "When a white male author writes as a young Nigerian girl, is it an act of empathy, or identity theft?" Cleave has responded by stating that he sympathises with those who feel he has no right to write from the perspective of a Nigerian girl, but feels that he does it well. He believes that the best mechanism for telling a story about crossing borderlines is to depict both sides. He conducted interviews with actual asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, a psychiatrist specialising in the trauma of child refugees, and members of London's Nigerian community, researching speech patterns to shape the "quirks and cadences" of Little Bee's narrative voice.

A central stylistic feature of the novel is the lack of detail Cleave gives regarding elements of Little Bee's past. "Little Bee" is an assumed name, described as a "mechanism for survival" by Courteau, as the character is forced to discard her true name when pursued by soldiers, through fear it may reveal her tribe and religion. Her real name, Udo, is not revealed until the end of the novel. Courteau also highlights the fact that Little Bee's Nigerian enemies and their motivations are never explicitly described, as the novel is told through the first-person narrative, and Little Bee herself is limited in her understanding of them. Cleave intended for the story as a whole never to be fully explicit, relying instead on readers' interpretation of the characters' dialogue.

Throughout the novel, Little Bee considers how she would explain England to "the girls back home" in Nigeria. Cleave uses the girls as a Greek chorus, providing a foil to allow the cultural dissonance experienced by Little Bee to be made explicit. He feels the device is more natural than having Little Bee narrate her alarm first hand, allowing the reader to appreciate the cultural gulf, and Little Bee to seem knowing as opposed to tragic. Through Little Bee's narration, Cleave examines human culture from the opposite perspective as science fiction does, having an extraordinary protagonist explore an ordinary world. This contemporary realism gives a significance to mundane events experienced by Little Bee, while bringing into focus "sad and ignoble" aspects of English culture such as the detention system. Cleave commented: "We have become accustomed to viewing our own actions in soft focus, but the alien narrator has not yet acquired this cultural immunity. She sees us as we can no longer see ourselves."

Courteau compared The Other Hand to Ian McEwan's Enduring Love observing that both novels are formed around "a single horrific encounter", and praised Cleave for his "restrained, diamond-hard prose". Philip drew a different comparison, opining that Cleave's writing style—using plain language to describe atrocities— was reminiscent of John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

## Publication history

The novel was first published on 7 August 2008, released in hardback by Sceptre in the UK. The hardback edition sold just 3,000 copies in 2008, however the publication of a paperback copy, released on 5 February 2009, saw increased sales, with 100,000 paperback copies sold in Britain in March and April 2009, despite no advertising and little marketing for the novel. As of November 2009, 300,000 copies of the novel had been sold. Richard Brooks of The Times attributed its success to recommendations from readers to family and friends, with Cleave calling it "an example of word-of-mouth success." The novel was published in America and Canada by Simon & Schuster under the alternative title Little Bee. It was released in hardback and e-book format in February 2009, and in paperback in February 2010. Cleave likes both titles, believing that The Other Hand "speaks to the dichotomous nature of the novel, with its two narrators and two worlds", also referencing Sarah's injury, while Little Bee is appropriate as the novel is really the telling of Little Bee's story, and sounds "bright and approachable", in line with his aim to write "an accessible story about a serious subject."

### Blurb

Mirroring the deliberately vague detail within the novel, the blurb on the book is unusually written, in that it does not name the characters or reveal the plot. It was written by a team at Sceptre led by marketing consultant Damian Horner, and has the approval of Cleave, who described it as "genius". Cleave explained: "I think readers are quite smart and don't really need the whole thing spelt out for them in a plot summary. It's nice to let them discover the book at their own speed. And the technique of the book is to release these dirty secrets gradually." The content of the blurb varies between UK and American editions of the novel, but both begin: "We don't want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it." and end: "Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds." James Spackman, Sales and Marketing Director for Sceptre, was initially sceptical of the blurb, particularly disliking the use of "we" for the publisher to address the reader directly. Once the book became a best-seller, however, he revised his stance, and now believes that the reason the blurb works is because it makes a virtue of denying the reader information, with an unusual format and "arrestingly direct" tone. The blurb won Sceptre the "Best Blurb" award at the 2010 Book Marketing Society Awards.

## Reception

The Other Hand reached number 13 on the 2009 Sunday Times bestseller list, and was the only literary title on the list without a Richard and Judy Book Club recommendation, a literary award or a film adaptation. It also topped The New York Times Best Seller list for paperback trade fiction in 2010. The novel was nominated at the 2008 Costa Book Awards, though lost to The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. It was nominated for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize as the best book originating from Europe and South Asia, but lost to Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. In 2010, The Other Hand was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, nominated by Cleveland Public Library, Seattle Public Library and Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand.

The book has received mixed reviews. Some critics have praised the novel for its focus on underlying human decency. The New York Times's Caroline Elkins felt that the pretext of the novel "initially feels contrived", but assessed that "in a world full of turpitude and injustice, it is [Sarah and Little Bee's] bold, impulsive choices that challenge the inevitability of despair, transforming a political novel into an affecting story of human triumph." James Urquhart of The Independent called the book "a powerful piece of art", writing: "Besides sharp, witty dialogue, an emotionally charged plot and the vivid characters' ethical struggles, The Other Hand delivers a timely challenge to reinvigorate our notions of civilised decency". Equally, Andrew Rosenheim of Publishers Weekly found the book noteworthy for Cleave's "ability to find a redemptive grace in the midst of almost inconceivable horror." while Jeremy Jehu of The Daily Telegraph deemed it an "elegant parable" and a "challenge to every cosy, knee-jerk liberal inclined to spout off about our shared humanity and global obligations."

A separate Daily Telegraph review, this by critic Ed Lake, took a dissimilar stance, opining that that book is "pervaded by a vaguely distasteful glossiness", and that "if Cleave is writing from great depths of feeling, he hides it well." Lake deemed the book "faultlessly relevant, but ultimately cloying." Another Publishers Weekly review was also less positive, calling the book "beautifully staged" but "haphazardly plotted", and noting: "Cleave has a sharp cinematic eye, but the plot is undermined by weak motivations and coincidences." Teeman of The Times felt that the book was overwritten, and wished "twistedly" that it had a less positive conclusion, commenting: "With every motive and action explicitly drawn, fleshed out and explained, there is no room for mystery, ambiguity or even tension."

## Film adaptation

Initial reports touted the possibility of a film adaptation; six offers were made from interested companies. The film was to star Nicole Kidman, and was to be produced by Kidman, Gail Mutrux and Per Saari through Mutrux's production company Pretty Picture, and Kidman's, Blossom Films. Shawn Slovo was to write the script, and Christine Langan was to be the executive producer. Kidman had already read the novel before Mutrux contacted her about producing the film, on a flight between Los Angeles and Australia. The Times reported that she was "so eager" to play Sarah that she personally competed with several film studios in order to secure the rights to the book.

However, online references to this project went dead within a couple of years, and as of 2017 no film had been made.

2008 novel by Chris Cleave

Refugees and displaced people in fiction


Ghosts I–IV

Ghosts I–IV is the sixth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by The Null Corporation on March 2, 2008. It was the band's first independent release following their split from longtime label Interscope Records in 2007. The production team included Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, studio collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, and contributions from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew, and Brian Viglione.

Reznor described Ghosts as "a soundtrack for daydreams," a sentiment echoed by critics, who compared it to the work of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. The tracks are unnamed, identified only by their track listing and group number, and are almost entirely instrumental. Although conceived as a five-track EP, the final release consisted of four nine-track EPs, totaling 36 tracks. The album was released under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA) and in a variety of differing packages and prices, including a \$300 deluxe edition, without prior announcement. A YouTube-based film festival was also announced, inviting fans to visually interpret the music and post their submissions, but no mention has been made of the festival since its announcement.

Ghosts I–IV received positive reviews; critics praised its experimentalism and unorthodox release. It reached number 14 in the US, and was nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Rock Instrumental Performance and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, the first time music released under a Creative Commons license had been nominated for a Grammy Award.

Ghosts preceded a series of soundtrack albums recorded by Reznor and Ross, including four collaborations with director David Fincher. In March 2020, Nine Inch Nails released two follow-up albums to Ghosts I–IV: Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts.

## Production

### Recording and music

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor announced in 2007 that the band had completed its contractual obligations to its record label, Interscope Records, and would no longer be working with the company. He also revealed that the band would likely distribute its next album independently, possibly in a fashion similar to Saul Williams' 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, which Reznor produced.

Following the Performance 2007 Tour in support of the band's previous album Year Zero (2007), Reznor set out to make a record "with very little forethought". Ghosts I–IV originated from an experiment: "The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as... something." Reznor explained, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point".

The core creative team behind the project was Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Alan Moulder. Live-band member Alessandro Cortini and studio musicians Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione also contributed instrumental performances on select tracks. Reznor described the band's early intentions for the project as "an experiment", and explained the group's process: "When we started working with the music, we would generally start with a sort of visual reference that we had imagined: a place, or a setting, or a situation. And then attempt to describe that with sound and texture and melody. And treat it, in a sense, as if it were a soundtrack."

The musicians created the album tracks through improvisation and experimentation. As a result, the initial plan to release a single EP of the material expanded to include the increasing amount of material. Viglione contributed percussion to tracks 19 and 22. He stated that Reznor's instructions to him were to "build a drumkit. Piece together any stuff that you want to bang on; rent what you want to rent. Have fun and... be creative—See where your mind and your ideas take you." Viglione's makeshift drum kit included a 50-gallon trash can, a pair of water cooler jugs, and a cookie tray with a chain across it. Alessandro Cortini is credited on a total of ten tracks from Ghosts for his contributions on guitar, bass guitar, dulcimer, and electronics. Cortini was brought onto the project two weeks into the process, and his involvement evolved from "first recording some extra parts to some tracks" and eventually into "a collaboration on [the] tracks noted in the booklet". Adrian Belew was also brought on for select instrumental contributions, but as the project evolved Reznor expanded Belew's involvement and shared writing credit with him on two tracks.

Ghosts I–IV is an almost entirely instrumental album, with only a few tracks containing sampled vocals. Reznor described the album's sound as "the result of working from a very visual perspective—dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams." PopMatters' review of the album compared its musical style to that of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, ultimately categorizing it as "dark ambient". The review went on to describe the music as "a tonal painting, a collection of moods and not all of these moods are good ones." NPR compared the album to the music of Erik Satie and Brian Eno. Rolling Stone also compared the album to the work of Brian Eno, specifically the album's sound to the instrumentals of Another Green World (1975) and the rhythm collages of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981). Robert Christgau also compared the album to the work of Brian Eno, summarizing Ghosts' sound as "mental wallpaper".

Ghosts I–IV features a wide assortment of musical instruments, including piano, guitar, bass, synthesizer, marimba, tambourine, banjo, dulcimer, and xylophone, many of which were sampled and distorted electronically. Percussion instruments, contributed primarily by Brian Viglione, were constructed largely out of found objects and household items.

### Artwork

Rob Sheridan acted as the album's art director, in collaboration with Artist in Residence. Sheridan was also art director for the previous two Nine Inch Nails studio albums, With Teeth (2005) and Year Zero. Since Ghosts was released in a variety of versions, some of the versions feature somewhat differing (or additional) album art and related artwork. A 40-page PDF comes with each version of the album and contains a photograph for each of the 36 tracks. These photographs are also embedded into the ID3 tags of every downloadable track.

## Release

Ghosts I–IV was released online on March 2, 2008, on the official Nine Inch Nails website in a number of different formats at various price points. The only prior advertisement or notice of the release was a post by Reznor two weeks prior on the site saying "2 weeks!" Ghosts was the first album released by Reznor's independent label The Null Corporation. Retail copies of the album were distributed by RED Distribution on April 8 on CD and vinyl formats, and May 1 for the "Deluxe" and "Ultra-Deluxe" editions. The smallest Ghosts package contains the first nine tracks, available for free online from either the official Nine Inch Nails website or officially from various BitTorrent trackers, including The Pirate Bay. The entire album was also made available for download directly from the band for US\$5. Physical copies of the album were available for pre-sale online, with immediate access to the digital version. A two-disc version includes two audio CDs and a 16-page booklet for \$10. A "Deluxe Edition" is available for \$75 and includes two audio CDs, a data-DVD containing multitrack files of the album, a Blu-ray Disc with the album in high-definition stereo and accompanying slide show, and a 48-page hardcover book with photographs. A \$300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition" included everything in the "Deluxe" edition, as well as a 4-LP 180 gram vinyl set in a fabric slipcase, and two exclusive limited edition Giclée prints, unique to each copy. These were limited to 2,500 pieces, each copy numbered and signed by Trent Reznor. Reznor described the limited edition release as "the most luxurious physical package we've ever created." Finally, the album was also released on 4-LP 130 gram vinyl, set in a double gate fold package, for \$39.

The album is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, in effect allowing anyone to use or rework the material for any non-profit purpose, as long as credit is provided and the resulting work is released under a similar license. Reznor explained this move by saying "It's a stance we're taking that we feel is appropriate [...] with digital technology, and outdated copyright laws, and all the nonsense that's going on these days". Jim Guerinot, then manager of Nine Inch Nails, explained the unconventional release of the album as "[not] a reaction to what doesn’t exist today. [...] it’s more just like, 'Hey, in a vacuum I can do whatever I want to do.'" The digital-release of the album reportedly required an extensive overhaul of the Nine Inch Nails website in order for the site to cope with the influx of traffic, online-payments, and customer service needs of releasing the album. These upgrades cost Reznor approximately \$20,000 to implement. Despite these measures, upon the release of Ghosts the site crashed, and additional servers were necessary to handle the traffic.

### Film festival

Nearly two weeks after the release of the album, Reznor organized and announced a user-created "film festival" as an accompaniment to the album, hosted at the official Nine Inch Nails YouTube channel. It was revealed that the album was stripped of much artwork and song titles to provide a blank canvas for the project. Reznor explained that the endeavor was not meant as a contest, but as "an experiment in collaboration and a chance for us to interact beyond the typical one-way artist-to-fan relationship." Over 2,000 video submissions were posted and over 13,000 members joined the festival group, which started in March 2008.

### Live performances

Ghosts I–IV material was implemented into Nine Inch Nails live performances typically as a distinct section of instrumental songs midway through the show. Ghosts material was performed in this manner primarily as part of the Lights in the Sky tour in 2008, immediately after the album's release. During these segments the music was largely acoustic, as opposed to the electric instrumentation of other Nine Inch Nails live sets. The Ghosts segment included instrumentation from a marimba, harmonium, glockenspiel, double bass, banjo and various homemade percussion instruments. The Ghosts section was later scrapped for the "NINJA" and "Wave Goodbye" tours, as Reznor felt the instrumental songs did not fit with the set lists.

## Critical reception

Critical response to Ghosts I–IV was generally favorable, with an average rating of 69/100 based on 12 reviews on Metacritic. Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek described the album as "the kind of absorbing musical experience that the surviving ranks of know-it-all record-store clerks would be pushing on customers, if only they could offer it for sale." IGN gave the album a rating of 8.7 out of 10 and wrote, "The music is so engrossing and encompassing that time ceases to be a factor—at least until the music finally stops." PopMatters gave the album an 8 out of 10, and described the album as "36 tracks, but no songs", and went on to call it "dark, brooding [...] haunting." Pitchfork criticized the album by saying "nearly every one of the untitled instrumental sketches here feels emaciated and half-finished", and gave the work a 5.0 out of 10.0. Blender also criticized the album, summarizing the review by saying "Nine Inch Nails return with no label oversight, no boundaries and no tunes." The Washington Post stated, "There's too much here. Yet it's the most interesting NIN in years." The review went on to describe each track as "the sonic equivalent of a silver orb hovering in your living room [which then] explodes into a million shiny balls of mercury that splash to the floor before trickling, magnetically, back into a large round mass."

The album's unorthodox distribution methods also garnered the attention of various news agencies, such as Wired'''s Eliot Van Buskirk, who labeled Ghosts as "a remarkably extensive release." Ben Worthen of The Wall Street Journal hypothesized that "most business execs [...] could learn a lot from [Reznor's] experiments with online business models." Many news agencies compared the release to Radiohead's 2007 "pay what you want" digital release of In Rainbows, as well as the similar release of Saul Williams' album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! the same year, which Reznor produced. Rolling Stone's review called the album a "a new-media showpiece", while Tiny Mix Tapes said "the circumstances surrounding the release are so forward-thinking that they could be considered just as key to appreciating the album as the music itself." Financial website The Motley Fool wrote an article on the album's release titled "Music Industry Gets Nailed Again," forecasting that "Innovators like Nine Inch Nails are paving the way for new media business models that may bypass the middleman while making sure artists and fans are happy." In its review of The Slip, however, PopMatters described Ghosts I–IV in retrospect as an "aimless batch of... instrumentals packaged in a brilliant marketing scheme" and said that it was "basically a CD release with a couple of mail-order special editions available for the 'true fans'."

### Accolades

Ghosts was nominated for two Grammy Awards, under the categories Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the track "34 Ghosts IV", and Best Boxed Set or Limited Edition Package for the "Ultra-Deluxe" edition of the album. These nominations represented the first time music licensed under Creative Commons had been nominated for a Grammy Award. Following the release of Ghosts and the similar online release method of the band's follow-up, The Slip, Reznor was awarded the Webby Artist of the Year Award at the annual Webby Awards in 2009. Rolling Stone magazine named Reznor number 46 in its "100 People Who Are Changing America" list, concluding that he has "been more creative than anyone in embracing the post-CD era".

## Commercial performance

The album's initial release on the official Nine Inch Nails website suffered problems as the website was inundated with traffic, and was not fully operational until extra servers were added to handle the influx of downloads. A week after the album's release, the official Nine Inch Nails site reported over 780,000 purchase and download transactions, amassing over \$1.6 million in sales. Pre-orders of the \$300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition" sold out in less than 30 hours of its release.

The physical release of the album debuted at number 14 on the US Billboard 200 with 26,000 copies sold in its first week. The album also topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart. It had sold 149,000 copies in the United States by May 2013. Internationally, Ghosts peaked at number three in Canada, number 15 in Australia, number 26 in New Zealand, number 58 in Austria, and number 60 in the United Kingdom.

## Influence

"02 Ghosts I" has been featured in the 2012 documentary film Kony 2012. Portions of the album were used as the soundtrack to the 2014 documentary film Citizenfour. The 2018 documentary series The Fourth Estate features variations of songs from Ghosts I-IV, in addition to the series' opening sequence being scored by Reznor and Ross.

"34 Ghosts IV" was sampled by music producer YoungKio for a beat subsequently used on the 2018 Lil Nas X song "Old Town Road," with Reznor's and Ross' writing credits. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 2019, and stayed there for a record-breaking nineteen consecutive weeks. The song also earned both Reznor and Ross a Country Music Association Awards nomination for Musical Event of the Year.

## Follow-up albums

Reznor wrote in 2008 that "more volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future." In a 2009 interview with Trent Vanegas, he repeated his intention to make another Ghosts album in the near future.

The release of Ghosts I–IV foreshadowed a stream of soundtrack albums, recorded and labeled by Reznor and Ross, apart from Nine Inch Nails catalogue. The duo's three consecutive collaborations with director David Fincher: The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Gone Girl (2014), were followed by a collaboration Before the Flood (2016), and subsequent scores for Patriots Day (2017), The Vietnam War (2017), Mid90s (2018), Bird Box (2018), Watchmen (2019), Waves (2019), Mank (fourth collaboration with Fincher, 2020), Soul (2020), Bones and All (2022), and Empire of Light (2022).

On March 26, 2020, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the band released the previously unannounced Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts, for free download on the band's website, YouTube channel, and streaming platforms.

## Track listing

## Personnel

Album credits adapted from the liner notes of Ghosts I–IV'':

- Trent Reznor – performance, production, art direction
- Atticus Ross – programming, arranging, production
- Adrian Belew – guitars (3, 4, 7, 10–11, 14, 16, 21, 25, 27, 31, 32, 35), electronics (25), marimba (30)
- Alessandro Cortini – bass (4), guitars (4, 11, 17, 20, 24, 28), dulcimer (22), additional electronics (19, 22, 29, 33)
- Josh Freese – drums (38)
- Brian Viglione – drums (19, 22)
- Alan Moulder – engineering, mix engineering, production
- Tom Baker – mastering
- Rob Sheridan – art direction, photography, visual and physical elements
- Artist in Residence – art direction, photography, visual and physical elements
- Phillip Graybill – photography
- Tamar Levine – additional photography

## Charts

### Weekly charts

### Year-end charts

Albums free for download by copyright owner


USS Bennington (PG-4)

USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4/PG-43) was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first U.S. Navy ship named in honor of the town of Bennington, Vermont, site of the Battle of Bennington in the American Revolutionary War.

The contract to build Bennington was awarded to N. F. Palmer & Co. of Philadelphia in November 1887. Her hull was subcontracted to the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding & Engine Works which laid down Bennington's keel in June 1888. Bennington was launched in June 1890. She was just over 244 feet (74 m) long and 36 feet (11 m) abeam and displaced 1,710 long tons (1,740 t). She was equipped with two steam engines which were supplemented with three schooner-rigged masts. The ship's main battery consisted of six 6-inch (15.2 cm) guns and was augmented by an assortment of smaller caliber guns.

After her June 1891 commissioning, Bennington was attached to the Squadron of Evolution and for its cruise to South America. The gunboat made two Mediterranean tours between 1892 and 1894, after which she was assigned to the duties in the Pacific. She sailed the Pacific coasts of North and Central America and spent time in the Hawaiian Islands to protect American interests there. On her way to support United States Army operations of the Philippine–American War, Bennington claimed Wake Island for the United States. After two years in the Philippines, she returned to the United States and was decommissioned for 18 months of repairs and refitting. After her March 1903 recommissioning, most of the next two years were spent patrolling the Pacific coasts of North and South America.

On 21 July 1905 at San Diego, California, Bennington suffered a boiler explosion, that killed 66 men and injured nearly everyone else on board. Shortly after the explosion, a tug beached the ship to prevent her from sinking. Eleven men were awarded the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary heroism" in the aftermath of the explosion. After Bennington was refloated, the damage was deemed too extensive to repair and the ship was decommissioned in September. The ship was sold for scrap in 1910, but instead served as a water barge for the Matson Line at Honolulu from 1912. In 1924, the former Bennington was scuttled off the coast of Oahu.

## Design and construction

The Yorktown class gunboats – unofficially considered third-class cruisers – were the product of a United States Navy design attempt to produce compact ships with good seakeeping abilities and, yet, able to carry a heavy battery. Bennington was authorized in the 1888 fiscal year, and the contract for her construction was awarded to N. F. Palmer & Co. of Chester, Pennsylvania. The hull for Bennington was subcontracted to the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding & Engine Works and built to the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair design. The mechanical design was patterned after the layout for her older sister ship Yorktown developed by William Cramp & Sons.

Bennington's keel was laid down in June 1888, and the ship was launched on 3 June 1890, sponsored by Anne Aston, the daughter of Rear Admiral Ralph Aston, Chief Engineer of the U.S. Navy.

### Layout

As built, Bennington was 244 feet 5 inches (74.50 m) in length and 36 feet (11 m) abeam. Her steel hull had an average draft of 14 feet (4 m), which was expected to give her the ability to escape from larger ships into shallow water. At the waterline was a turtleback deck of 3⁄8-inch (9.5 mm) steel that formed a watertight seal over the lower spaces. The deck had a crown at the level of the waterline and curved downwards to 3 feet (0.9 m) below the waterline at the sides of the ship. Below this armored deck were twelve compartments separated by watertight bulkheads; the spaces above were equipped with watertight doors intended to be closed during battle.

Above the armored deck, Bennington had forecastle and poop decks with an open gun deck that spanned the length of the ship between them. The conning tower was located forward on the forecastle deck and was oval-shaped to deflect shot. It was outfitted with a steam-powered Ship's wheel, an engine order telegraph, and speaking tubes; it was protected by 2 inches (51 mm) of steel armor plate.

### Propulsion

Bennington was powered by two triple-expansion steam engines which each drove one of the pair of 10.5-foot (3.2 m), three-bladed screw propellers. The cylinders of each engine were 22, 31, and 51 inches (56, 79, and 130 cm) in diameter and had a 30-inch (76 cm) stroke. Each engine was rated at 3,400 indicated horsepower (2,500 kW) and together were designed to move the ship at 16 knots (30 km/h), though the ship exceeded that in her trials, topping out at 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h).

The engines, situated in separate watertight compartments, were each fed by a pair of coal-fired boilers. Each boiler was horizontally mounted and was 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) in diameter and 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) in length with a total grate area of 220 square inches (1,400 cm2). Bennington's coal bunkers could carry up to 400 long tons (410 t) of fuel, and were shielded from "shot and shell". At a near top-speed of 16 knots, the ship could cover 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km) in 61⁄2 days; at the more economical speed of 8 knots (15 km/h) she could cruise 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) over 62 days.

To supplement her steam power plant, Bennington was built with three masts that were schooner-rigged. She had a total sail area of 6,300 square feet (590 m2). The steam and sail combination was expected to allow Bennington to remain at sea for months at a time during wartime.

### Armament

Bennington's main battery consisted of six 6-inch (152 mm)/30 caliber Mark 3 guns, with each gun weighing in excess of 11,000 pounds (5,000 kg). Two were mounted on the forecastle deck, two on the poop deck, and the other pair amidships on the gun deck. The two guns on the gun deck were mounted 10 feet (3.0 m) above the waterline, while the other four were 18 feet (5.5 m) above. The guns fired 105-pound (48 kg) armor-piercing projectiles with a propellant charge weighing 18.8 pounds (8.5 kg) at 1,950 feet per second (590 m/s). At an elevation of 30.2°, the guns had a range of 18,000 yards (16,000 m). Each gun was shielded with steel plating 3 inches (76 mm) thick.

Bennington's secondary battery consisted of four 6-pounder (57 mm (2.24 in)) guns, and four 1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) guns. Both were based on designs of the French arms company Hotchkiss. According to a 1902 Bureau of Ordnance publication, an armor-piercing round fired from a 6-pounder gun could penetrate 2 inches (51 mm) of armor at a distance of 1,000 yards (910 m).

## Early career

USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4) was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 20 June 1891 under the command of Commander Royal B. Bradford. As one of the first steel-hulled gunboats of the "New Navy", Bennington was assigned to the Squadron of Evolution, a unit made up entirely of "New Navy" ships that was established to test and perfect tactics and doctrine developed at the Naval War College. In addition to operating as the first tactical fleet of the U.S. Navy, the squadron performed the secondary mission of cruising to foreign ports to demonstrate to the world the types of modern ships the United States was capable of building. In that latter role, Bennington and the rest of the squadron departed New York on 19 November 1891 for the unit's cruise to Brazil.

On 5 May 1892, Bennington was transferred to the South Atlantic Squadron and cruised South American waters until 19 July. Setting out from Bahia, Brazil, the gunboat visited Spanish and Italian ports during the 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus' voyage to the western hemisphere. She concluded the European portion of those festivities on 18 February 1893 when she departed Cadiz, with a replica of Columbus's caravel Pinta in tow for Cuba. After stops in the Canary Islands, the Netherlands West Indies, and Havana, the gunboat arrived back in the United States at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 26 March.

Following participation in the 1893 International Naval Review at Hampton Roads, Bennington moved north for operations along the coast of New England before beginning preparations for foreign service. To this end, she entered the New York Navy Yard on 24 May and remained there until 6 August. The ship departed New York on the 6th and arrived in Lisbon on the 18th. She cruised the Mediterranean, visiting various ports along its shores, for the next six months. In February 1894, orders arrived sending her to the Pacific. On the 18th, the gunboat transited the Strait of Gibraltar and headed back across the Atlantic. After steaming around Cape Horn and stopping at several Latin American ports, the warship finally arrived at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 30 April.

## Pacific Duty

Bennington served in the Pacific for a little more than four years. For the most part, her duty consisted of cruising along the west coast protecting American interests in Latin America during the numerous political upheavals that occurred at that time in Central and South America. In addition, she made two extended cruises to the Hawaiian Islands. The first came after a group of pro-royalists attempted in January 1895 to stage a countercoup against the provisional government of the islands. Bennington departed Mare Island on 28 May, arrived at Honolulu on 5 June, and spent the next nine months protecting American interests in the islands. On 5 March 1896, she departed Honolulu, bound for San Francisco where she arrived on 16 March. The following day, the warship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for five months of repairs.

On 8 August, she resumed cruises along the west coast. That employment lasted a year and a week. On 14 August 1897, Bennington headed back to Hawaii. She arrived in Lahaina Roads on 27 September and reached Honolulu on the 30th. Except for a six-day cruise back to Lahaina in March 1898, the gunboat remained at Honolulu for just over nine months.

At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Bennington was in Hawaiian waters. After spending the first two months of the war in the Hawaiian Islands, she departed Honolulu on 16 June and steamed to the west coast of the United States. The warship arrived in San Francisco on 26 June and patrolled the California coast for the remainder of hostilities. On 18 September, Bennington stood out of San Francisco on her way ultimately to the Philippines. She arrived in Hawaii on 27 September and devoted a little over three months to operations in nearby waters. On 7 January 1899, she resumed her voyage west. Ten days out of Honolulu, she stopped at Wake Island. There Commander Edward D. Taussig, Bennington's commander, under direct orders from President William McKinley claimed the atoll for the United States, despite protests from Germany (which considered the island group a part of its claim of the Marshall Islands). Wake eventually became an important link in the Honolulu–Manila trans-Pacific cable. Bennington later made a stop at San Luis d'Apra, Guam, from 23 January to 15 February where Commander (later Rear Admiral) Taussig accepted the relinquishment of Guam from her Spanish colonial governor. Taussig briefly served as the first naval governor of Guam and established a native ruling council, before continuing on to Manila where Bennington arrived on 22 February.

## Philippine–American War

For a little more than two years after her February 1899 arrival, Bennington served in the Philippine Islands in support of the Army's campaigns during the Philippine–American War. For the most part, her service in the islands consisted of patrol and escort duty – preventing rebel movement and stopping the importation of arms, as well as seeing American troops and supplies safely between the islands. Occasionally, Bennington did see action. On 10 September, she shelled a fort near Legaspi on the southeastern coast of Luzon. Two days later, she captured and destroyed the insurgent vessel Parao. Between 7 and 9 November, the warship supported an Army landing at San Fabian on the shores of Lingayen Gulf in northwestern Luzon. The gunboat began a four-month assignment as station ship at Cebu on 26 November and concluded that duty on 19 March 1900.

After visiting Cavite on Luzon, the gunboat headed for Japan on 3 April and underwent repairs there from 9 April to 19 May before heading back to the Philippines. The warship arrived at Cavite on 27 May and resumed patrols on 3 June. She spent another seven months conducting patrols in the Philippines and supporting the Army's operations in the island chain. On 3 January 1901, she departed Cavite and shaped a course for Hong Kong. The gunboat arrived in that British colony on the 6th and began over six months of repairs. At the completion of that work, she departed Hong Kong on 25 June. After a visit to Shanghai, the warship headed back to the United States in July and arrived at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 19 August. She was decommissioned there on 5 September 1901.

While she was out of commission at Mare Island, Bennington was refitted. A pilothouse that had been added on top of her bridge and a spotlight platform on her bow – both added in 1893–94 – were removed. Bennington's mainmast was also removed, leaving her as a two-mast rig. In addition, two tall ventilation cowls were added immediately behind the bridge. After 18 months of inactivity, Bennington was recommissioned on 2 March 1903 under the command of Commander Chauncey Thomas.

Over the next 27 months, Bennington cruised in the eastern Pacific along the coasts of North and South America. The warship visited Alaskan ports in the summer of 1903 and the coast of Central America the following fall and winter. In May 1904, she steamed to Hawaii and then proceeded to the Aleutians in June. The winter of 1904 and 1905 saw her voyage south for visits to Pacific ports in Central and South America. In February 1905, she departed San Francisco for a two-month cruise to the Hawaiian Islands, returning to San Diego on 19 July, after a difficult 17-day voyage.

## Boiler explosion

On the morning of 21 July 1905, Bennington's crew was preparing her to sail to the aid of the monitor Wyoming which had broken down and was in need of a tow. After her crew had finished the difficult task of coaling the ship that morning, most of them were belowdecks cleaning themselves from the dirty job. Unbeknownst to anyone on board, three problems with one of Bennington's boilers – oily feed water, an improperly closed steam valve, and a faulty steam gauge – were conspiring against them. At about 10:30, excessive steam pressure in the boiler resulted in a boiler explosion that rocked the ship, sending men and equipment flying into the air. The escaping steam sprayed through the living compartments and decks. The explosion opened Bennington's hull to the sea, and she began to list to starboard. Quick actions by the tug Santa Fe – taking Bennington under tow and beaching her – almost certainly saved the gunboat from sinking.

The combination of the explosion and the scalding steam killed a number of men outright and left others mortally wounded; the final death toll was one officer and sixty-five men, making it one of the U.S. Navy's worst peacetime disasters. Nearly all of the forty-six who survived had an injury of some sort; eleven of the survivors were awarded the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary heroism displayed at the time of the explosion". One of the survivors was John Henry Turpin, an African-American who had also survived the explosion of Maine in Havana in February 1898 and was, reportedly, the only man to survive both explosions. The sheer number of casualties – the death toll exceeded the U.S. Navy's death toll for the entirety of the Spanish–American War – overwhelmed San Diego's medical facilities, and many burn victims had to be cared for in makeshift facilities tended by volunteers.

The number of dead also taxed the morticians in San Diego, who were hard-pressed to prepare all of the victims for burial. On 23 July, two days after the explosion, the majority of those killed were buried in the cemetery at Fort Rosecrans. The victims are commemorated by the USS Bennington Monument, a 60-foot (18 m) granite obelisk dedicated in the cemetery on 7 January 1908.

In spite of rumors of misconduct by Bennington's engineering crewmen, an official investigation concluded that the explosion was not due to negligence on the part of the crew.

### List of Medal of Honor recipients from explosion

The eleven men who were awarded the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary heroism displayed at the time of the explosion" were:

- Edward William Boers, Seaman
- George F. Brock, Carpenter's Mate Second Class
- Raymond E. Davis, Quartermaster Third Class
- John J. Clausey, Chief Gunner's Mate
- Willie Cronan, Boatswain's Mate (retired as Lieutenant Commander (O-4) during World War II)
- Emil Fredericksen, Watertender
- Rade Grbitch, Seaman
- Frank E. Hill, Ship's Cook First Class
- Oscar Frederick Nelson, Machinist's Mate First Class
- Otto Diller Schmidt, Seaman
- William Sidney Shacklette, Hospital Steward

Also aboard was John Henry Turpin, an African-American sailor who was aboard the USS Maine when she exploded in Havana harbor in 1898 and would go on to become one of the first African-American Chief Petty Officers in the U.S. Navy.

## Disposition

After the explosion, Bennington was refloated and towed to the Mare Island Navy Yard. Because of the extent of the damage and the age of the ship, Bennington was not repaired but was instead decommissioned on 31 October 1905. After five years of inactivity, Bennington was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 10 September 1910 and sold for scrap on 14 November. Bennington was not scrapped but was purchased in 1913 by the Matson Line for use as a molasses barge. She was towed to Honolulu and remained in use there from 1913 until 1924, when she was scuttled off Oahu.

## Campaigns

Former United States warship

Philippine–American War ships of the United States

Ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works


Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad

Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad Al Saif (Arabic: عبد الرحيم الحج محمد ال سيف; 1892 – March 1939), also known by his kunya Abu Kamal, was a prominent Palestinian Arab commander of rebel forces during the 1936–39 Arab revolt against British Mandate rule and increased levels of Jewish settlement in Palestine. Most of his activities were based in the areas of Tulkarm, Nablus and Jenin (modern-day northern West Bank). In September 1938, he became the General Commander of the Revolt, although he shared the post in rotation with Arif Abd al-Raziq. In February 1939, al-Hajj Muhammad was given sole title to the post by the revolt's political leadership, but was killed the following month in a fire-fight with British forces.

## Early life

Al-Hajj Muhammad was born in the village of Dhinnaba (today a neighborhood of Tulkarm city) in 1892. He belonged to the landowning clan of Samara, itself a part of the larger tribal confederation of al-Barqawi, which had a long history of activity in the area of Tulkarm. During the invasion of Syria by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798–99, al-Hajj Muhammad's great-grandfather fought in the Ottoman defense of the country, but was later sentenced to death. Another of his great-grandfathers participated in the 1834 peasants' revolt against Ibrahim Pasha's rule in Palestine.

Al-Hajj Muhammad was initially educated in Dhinnaba's kuttab, a traditional elementary school. In 1899–1900 he was enrolled in a primary school in Tulkarm. Later, he worked the fields of his lands alongside his father and occasionally traveled with him from place to place, selling their agricultural products. During World War I (1914–18) he was conscripted into the Ottoman army (a requirement for male Ottoman citizens), and posted outside of Palestine in Tripoli and Beirut. He returned following the Ottomans' defeat by British forces and their Hashemite Arab allies. His father had died sometime during the war. In 1920 Britain, which had already been in control of the area, established a mandate over Palestine under the auspices of the League of Nations.

## Career during British rule

Upon his return to Palestine in 1918, al-Hajj Muhammad supervised his family's land possessions. He became one of the prominent local grain traders of Palestine during the early years of the Mandate. Coinciding with this period, al-Hajj Muhammad became an ardent opponent of Zionism and British support for that movement. The 1920 Nebi Musa riots, unrest in 1923 and the 1929 Palestine riots all extended into Tulkarm and al-Hajj Muhammad was angered at the coercive manner in which the British authorities quelled the Palestinian Arab participants. His business eventually went bankrupt after the Mandate adopted new economic policies that saw the import of cheaper, foreign wheat at the expense of local produce. His disaffection with British economic policies partly motivated his participation in the Palestinian Arab revolt in 1936.

The local connections al-Hajj Muhammad established as a grain merchant became beneficial in his later recruitment efforts. The web of the al-Barqawi's tribal loyalties proved of great value, providing him with fighting men and provisions. During the 1930s, al-Hajj Muhammad set up base in the vicinity of Bal'a, near Tulkarm, and began recruiting and training fighters from the area, including former Ottoman soldiers who brought additional expertise in combat and use of firearms. Under his command, his men launched minor raids against Jewish settlements and British security personnel. One of the main targets were the orange orchards of newly established Jewish settlements in the Wadi al-Hawarith area west of Tulkarm. These places had mostly been built on the lands of absentee landlords and their peasant tenants had been evicted.

Al-Hajj Muhammad had a criminal record with the Mandatory authorities. According to Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath, his alleged crime was committing fraud in a land transaction with a Jewish buyer. However, author and anthropologist Ted Swedenburg wrote Porath's claim was never mentioned by other sources that discussed al-Hajj Muhammad.

In 1934, his wife Badia'a died and al-Hajj Muhammad was left to care for his four sons. With the killing of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a Muslim revivalist preacher and anti-colonial militant by British forces, tensions between the Palestinian Arab population, among whom al-Qassam was popular, and the authorities rose significantly. His sympathizers grew in number and the notion of armed struggle against British rule and British sponsorship of Zionism became increasingly popular as an alternative to the diplomatic negotiations between the Palestinian leadership and the British government. The negotiations were ultimately seen by the local population as a futile effort that bore no tangible results. Later, when al-Hajj Muhammad actively took part in the revolt, he entrusted his children with his sister Halima, a widow. According to his eldest son Kamal, she too was a grain merchant, who later traded in textiles. She also financially supported the children's education. Al-Hajj Muhammad normally met his sons for one or two days a week in different villages. His children would be escorted to his location by one of al-Hajj Muhammad's soldiers.

## Commander in the revolt

### Early stage

The revolt started in Nablus with the Palestinian general strike in April 1936. The strike spread to a number of cities throughout Palestine, including Tulkarm where al-Hajj Muhammad helped organize the campaign. By the summer of that year, several Palestinian Arab rebel bands had sprung up, including the forces of al-Hajj Muhammad. The latter used existing social networks and the complex web of local clan politics to build alliances both with the middle classes of the major towns, particularly the well-educated activists, and the rural clan elders to build a solid base of resistance among the Muslim populace. In order to avoid detection, al-Hajj Muhammad refrained from commanding a large unit of troops. Instead, he raised small, semi-permanent bands of volunteers called fasa'il (sing. fasl) as he moved from one area to another. They normally launched night time attacks against specific targets.

In the earliest stage of the revolt, in the early summer, al-Hajj Muhammad's fighters primarily operated in the Wadi al-Sha'ir area between Nablus and the coastal plain. Most of their actions consisted of attacks against British Army and police patrols between Tulkarm and Nablus. On 21 June 1936, in the Battle of Anabta, al-Hajj Muhammad and his fasa'il ambushed a British Army force protecting a Jewish convoy passing near the village. Three British bomber planes were dispatched to aid the ambushed convoy. The ensuing battle lasted about seven hours and ended with the deaths of 10 rebels and 2 British soldiers. A further 21 rebels and two British soldiers were wounded. The authorities consequently issued an arrest warrant for al-Hajj Muhammad.

The rebel bands had worked independently of each other until July, when al-Hajj Muhammad, Arif Abd al-Raziq and Fakhri Abd al-Hadi decided to coordinate the actions of their respective militias. Abd al-Raziq was based in the Bani Sa'b area around Tayibe, while Abd al-Hadi operated in Sha'ruwiya, around Arraba. All of their areas of operation were concentrated in the north-central highlands. Another meeting between the leaders was held in August to designate official areas of operation and specific targets to attack. The Jerusalem-area militia of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was absent from both of these meetings, making it increasingly difficult to form a solid military command among rebels across the country.

The arrival of the well-known Arab nationalist volunteer commander Fawzi al-Qawuqji in August, and his assumption of the rebels' leadership, further damaged the revolt's coherence, despite his attempts to unify rebel ranks. Although al-Qawuqji was an experienced field commander, relations between him and the Palestinian political and military leadership was one of general mistrust. Local rebels resented the delegation of command positions to non-Palestinians and al-Qawuqji's references to the area as "Southern Syria" instead of "Palestine." Nonetheless, al-Hajj Muhammad and al-Qawuqji fought together in a second major confrontation with British forces in Bal'a in September. The battle went on for six hours and according to Mandatory figures, three British military personnel were killed and four wounded. One of the fatalities was a British pilot whose plane was downed by rebels, who suffered ten dead and six wounded.

In October 1936, rebel operations temporarily ceased after the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), the revolt's political leadership, accepted calls by the generally pro-British royals of Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia for a cessation of hostilities. In return, the Arab royals would lobby the British Mandatory authorities to address Palestinian Arab concerns about Zionist activity in Palestine. That month, al-Qawuqji left Palestine. Al-Hajj Muhammad followed suit and headed for Damascus to evade arrest; the British had placed a bounty of 500 pounds on him. While in Damascus, al-Hajj Muhammad raised funds and purchased weapons for the revolt. He also began working with Syrian and Lebanese nationalists to smuggle the arms into Palestine. Al-Hajj Muhammad later left Damascus for the Lebanese mountain village of Qarnayel east of Beirut. From there, he maintained regular communications with his forces.

### Renewal of rebellion

While fighting was on hold, the British government announced it would not restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine and instead proposed a partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states as put forward by the Peel Commission (November 1936–January 1937.) These moves antagonized the Palestinian leadership whose principal concern was increased Jewish settlement. Thus, they boycotted the commission from the time it began its work. The AHC under the chairmanship of Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, requested rebel leaders return and resume military activities in Palestine to pressure the authorities. To that end, al-Hajj Muhammad returned to Palestine in April to command his fasa'il in the Tulkarm-Jenin-Nablus region, which was referred to by the authorities as the "Triangle of Terror" due to the concentration of rebel activity in the area.

With the renewal of the revolt, efforts were made to unify rebel ranks and establish a hierarchical command structure. In late 1937, al-Hajj Muhammad summoned the village elders in Tulkarm's vicinity and requested that they each provide him with one armed man. He was generally successful and recruited a 50-man force. The last quarter of the year saw increased attacks against British military targets, buses carrying Jews, the Iraqi Petroleum Company pipeline in Palestine and telecommunication lines. By this stage, the revolt had developed into an organized effort across Palestine, with each area's fasa'il having a hierarchy of some sort. In the case of al-Hajj Muhammad's forces, there were four brigades, each led by a commander and with designated funds. Al-Hajj Muhammad appointed Ahmad Massad as his deputy to whom the other commanders were subordinate. This military order contrasted with the early phase of the revolt where al-Hajj Muhammad had been the sole field commander.

During a confrontation between rebels and British forces at the village of an-Nazla ash-Sharqiya in early December 1937, al-Hajj Muhammad was wounded, but managed to evade capture when the mukhtar (village headman) escorted him to safety in a nearby cave. Four of al-Hajj Muhammad's men died in the battle. After the British withdrew from the area, al-Hajj Muhammad was treated by local doctors until January 1938 when he received more advanced care in Damascus. He returned to Palestine later that month. By early 1938, the rebels consolidated control over much of the countryside and the rural roads. These areas became increasingly dangerous for British forces, who were mostly concentrated in the main towns.

### General commander

Local rebel commanders were generally suspicious of outside Arab military leaders, such as al-Qawuqji, and of the AHC, particularly after many members of the latter joined the Damascus-based Central Committee of Jihad following the AHC's dissolution by the authorities in October 1937. The Central Committee had been founded in late 1937 by Izzat Darwaza, and officially served as the revolt's political leadership, fund-raising body and arms supplier. On the ground in Palestine, competition for the role of the rebels' general command became increasingly tense between al-Hajj Muhammad and Abd al-Raziq. They engaged in a serious rivalry, which coincided with acrimonious relations between their families over their influence in the Tulkarm area's social and political spheres.

To smooth over differences, the revolt's leaders held a summit in Deir Ghassaneh in September 1938 and established the Bureau of the Arab Revolt in Palestine as the armed body of the Central Committee, with al-Hajj Muhammad and Abd al-Raziq rotating as general commander. The other two commanders on the Bureau were Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir of the Upper Galilee and Yusuf Abu Durra of the Haifa-Wadi Ara region. The British Army, backed by bomber planes, assaulted Deir Ghassaneh after gaining knowledge of the meeting, and sought to arrest or kill the commanders. A battle ensued in which a prominent commander, Muhammad al-Salih (known as Abu Khalid) was slain. Despite the Bureau's formation, the rivalry between al-Hajj Muhammad and Abd al-Raziq continued and undermined its purpose.

The Central Committee settled the leadership dispute when it conferred the title of general commander solely to al-Hajj Muhammad in February 1939. He was already in Damascus at the time, having moved back in October 1938. Al-Hajj Muhammad was also given an assurance of support after tensions between him and the Central Committee resulted in the latter's withholding of supplies and funding to al-Hajj Muhammad at one point in 1938. The rebellion was also entering a new stage with the establishment of British-sponsored and Zionist-supported anti-rebel forces known as "peace bands". They were commanded by al-Husayni's political rivals, chief among them the Nashashibi clan, and launched counter-attacks against rebel forces and a campaign to harass rebel sympathizers and pressure local leaders to end the revolt.

## Death and legacy

In late March 1939, on his return to Palestine after being officially confirmed as the rebellion's general commander, al-Hajj Muhammad was killed by the British Army in the village of Sanur, located between Jenin and Nablus. He had entered the village with two of his subordinate commanders and a few of his fighters. A peace band set up by Farid Irsheid had been carrying out surveillance of him. Irsheid had sought revenge for the killing of his brothers Ahmad and Muhammad in May 1938, which were generally attributed to al-Hajj Muhammad. The information Irsheid's band of informants collected on al-Hajj Muhammad's movements were then passed onto British intelligence. A large force from the British Army subsequently arrived at Sanur and sealed off the village. Irsheid's band served alongside the army unit. The village's residents had reportedly pleaded with al-Hajj Muhammad to escape from Sanur undercover, but he and his fighters entered the adjacent Marj Sanur plain and clashed with British troops. Al-Hajj Muhammad was killed in the fire-fight along with one of his deputy commanders. According to some residents who witnessed the clash, the British officer who headed the operation, Geoffrey Morton, removed his hat and covered al-Hajj Muhammad's face with a handkerchief in a sign of respect. Morton later wrote "Abdul Rahim had a special respect among his people, and among us."

Al-Hajj Muhammad was buried in Sanur, but two weeks later members of his fasa'il exhumed his body and transported it to Dhinnaba. There, he was buried in a ceremonial manner "befitting his stature in the revolt," according to author Sonia Nimr. As news of his death spread, a general strike was held throughout Palestine for a number of days in honor of al-Hajj Muhammad's efforts in the anti-colonial and anti-Zionist struggle. His death made the headlines of various newspapers in Palestine and other parts of the Arab world.

Al-Hajj Muhammad's native village commemorates his death annually in March and the 70th anniversary of his death was also honored by Tulkarm's (Jewish-founded) Kadoorie Institute in March 2009. A boys' school in Dhinnaba is named after al-Hajj Muhammad as is a major street in Amman, Jordan.

According to historian Hillel Frisch, al-Hajj Muhammad's death was a "reflection of how much the rebels were then bereft of an area that could serve as a sanctuary or from which they could renew operations." The revolt had largely dissipated by the time al-Hajj Muhammad was killed, his demise being a significant blow. He was succeeded by Ahmad al-Hasan, but the latter was unable to maintain the momentum of the revolt, which ended in late 1939.

## Ideology and relationship with the Central Committee

According to Swedenburg, al-Hajj Muhammad was the "most respected commander, [and] was renowned for his nationalist convictions, for his opposition to political assassination, and for his tirelessness as a fighter". He operated more or less independently from the political leadership of the rebellion, including those based in Palestine, such as al-Husayni, and the Damascus-based Central Committee. Despite his tacit alliance with al-Husayni, al-Hajj Muhammad had refused to assassinate local leaders who were rivals against the al-Husayni family for political power, once remarking "I don't work for Husayniya ("Husanyni-ism"), but for wataniya (patriotism)."

Political assassinations, attempted or successful, commonly occurred throughout the revolt. Al-Hajj Muhammad's refusal to participate did not seriously damage his relations with al-Husayni or the Central Committee, an organization which he depended on for war materiel. He went frequently to Damascus to obtain weapons and supplies as well as to discuss the situation in Palestine. However, an intelligence document from the British Mandatory authorities revealed that al-Hajj Muhammad left Palestine for Syria in October 1938 after becoming disaffected with the Central Committee's activities. The report states that he refused to send funds to the Committee, remarking "The shoe of the most insignificant mujahid (fighter) is nobler than all the members of the Society, who have indulged in pleasure, while their brethren suffer in the mountains."

At one point, tensions emanating from al-Hajj Muhammad's refusal to carry out the killings of several men provided to him in a hit list by Da'ud al-Husayni on behalf of the Committee resulted in the cutting off of financial and material support for a certain period of time in 1938. This forced al-Hajj Muhammad to go to Jerusalem's chamber of commerce and the Ramallah municipality for funds. Another reason for his departure was the increased presence of informants within rebel ranks, making it hard for him to continue military activities.

His personal assistant Abu Shahir depicted al-Hajj Muhammad as a "genuine nationalist," in contrast to the self-proclaimed nationalist leaders whom Abu Shahir accused of adhering to "narrow factional interests". He claimed that al-Hajj Muhammad saw Palestinian unity as being all-inclusive and incompatible with political assassinations, particularly killings that would fuel divisions within the ranks of the rebellion's leadership. A possible exception to his anti-assassination policy was his alleged responsibility for the killings of Ahmad and Muhammad Irsheid, landowners who supported Nashashibi-led opposition to al-Husayni's leadership. Because of the widely disputed circumstances surrounding the Irsheids' deaths and its general attribution to al-Hajj Muhammad, the killings were rarely mentioned in Palestinian narratives of the revolt.

Palestinian Arab commander (1892–1939)

Military personnel of the Ottoman Empire

Rebel commanders of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine