Mark Derby: Ragnar Redbeard

The name Ragnar Redbeard won't be familiar to many. His book Might Is Right published in 1890 declared "death to the weakling - wealth to the strong" and it's a proto-fascist work still popular among the alt-right to this day. Arthur Desmond was a socialist agitator who was prepared to risk body and limb defending the right of Te Kooti to return to the East Coast. Historian Mark Derby's latest book - Ragnar Redbeard: The Antipodean Origins of Radical Fabulist Arthur Desmond - reveals Arthur and Ragnar to be one and the same.