King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa | 
|  | | | Title: | King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa | | Author: | Adam Hochschild | | Publisher: | Mariner Books | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | October, 1999 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0618001905 / 9780618001903 | | List Price: | $15.00 | | You Save: | $4.80 | | Amazon Price: | $10.20 | |
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Product Description
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West.
Amazon.com Review
King Leopold of Belgium, writes historian Adam Hochschild in this grim history, did not much care for his native land or his subjects, all of which he dismissed as "small country, small people." Even so, he searched the globe to find a colony for Belgium, frantic that the scramble of other European powers for overseas dominions in Africa and Asia would leave nothing for himself or his people. When he eventually found a suitable location in what would become the Belgian Congo, later known as Zaire and now simply as Congo, Leopold set about establishing a rule of terror that would culminate in the deaths of 4 to 8 million indigenous people, "a death toll," Hochschild writes, "of Holocaust dimensions." Those who survived went to work mining ore or harvesting rubber, yielding a fortune for the Belgian king, who salted away billions of dollars in hidden bank accounts throughout the world. Hochschild's fine book of historical inquiry, which draws heavily on eyewitness accounts of the colonialists' savagery, brings this little-studied episode in European and African history into new light. --Gregory McNamee
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Customer Reviews:
• Good Book 31 May, 2008
A very interesting book about a very evil person and a bad time in the world. Much like now in Africa.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AUGY9NJXD3K60
• Rich And Informative. 17 June, 2008
This book was among the best I have read this year. I had no idea as to the atrocities committed in the Congo around the turn of the century until I picked up this book. While Hochschild goes into great lengths to expose King Leopold II and his horrible deeds, he still maintains great objectivity and examines WHY Leopold may have acted in the manner that he did. I would love for Hochschild to look more into Leopolds mistress Caroline. That is a book I would definetly pick up.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A24OLSAXLGUOSU
• Be Careful Who You Sit Down To Tea With 04 October, 2008
This is a brutal history of the colonization of the Belgian Congo beginning in the 1890's. Long after slavery was unilaterally condemned on the planet earth, we find that King Leopold and the tiny country of Belgium has managed to take ownership of a chunk of the African continent, claim it for its own and ransack its people and resources for his own benefit.
Belgium felt they were being left out of the colonial expansion of Europe into Africa and wanted their piece of the action. They found the Congo River area an ideal source of rubber and cheap labor; a perfect location to set up shop which they did with the help of vicious mercenaries and Belgian company men. The book goes into horrible detail about the methods the white colonialists and their hired African mercenaries used to extract these resources and the labor that made it so valuable.
How could this happen? Where was the rest of the world? Well, believe it or not the United States inadvertently helped Leopold. A senator Sanford from the state of Florida, on the floor of the house, recognized the Congo as a Belgian territory. This simple recognition of a countries imperialistic expansion left the door wide open for Leopold to continue his atrocities under the guise of a legitimate Belgian state. It took decades for the truth about this brutal state to be known.
The implications of this episode in history bear some resemblance to today's debate about the benefit of the US negotiating with known terrorist states like Iran and N Korea. If a super power comes to the table of negotiation with a rogue state, the rogue country wins recognition even when nothing is accomplished. Unless pre-conditions and terms are negotiated, which make the meeting of mutual benefit to both parties, these terrorist states need to be marginalized and shunned by society at large.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A28OTJMCSHCZ0J
• Leopold: Evil Genius 16 August, 2008
I would like to present a review of Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa" which depicts the ruthlessness and greed of King Leopold in his exploitation of the Congolese. Furthermore, it illustrates the horrors of the rubber trade which spanned nearly thirty years. The author narrates this account of African history particularly well. Showing us the psychological traits of each character involved in the plot to acquire the Congo, the author gives us insight into the psychological motives of this episode in Belgium's colonizing days. Leopold is an evil, political genius orchestrating a grand scheme to subtly take over the Congo. He manipulates people with ease and lies just as easily. As Belgium's King, he acquires loyal spies in every major European country informing him of that country's intentions and political moves. Furthermore, Hocschild chronicles how the Belgian army slaughtered the native Congolese in pursuit of rubber vines from the rain forest. Moreover, as a novel, "Leopold's Ghost" introduces each character individually tracing their roots from childhood and depicting their personality traits early in life and illustrates how personality traits shape people and their desires.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3U84HZIDY6ULP
• Amazingly Eyeopening 22 July, 2008
Although I teach High school history I've never been intersted in African history. I've taught slavery, Pre-european contact, and Egypt yet I've never studied or taught about imperialism in Africa. In preparation for teaching this period in a Modern World history class I've been reading about Africa. Wow - this book blew my mind. It presents all sides of the imperialism issue and doesn't make the Africans as innocent victims. Don't be confused this book pulls no punches everyone from the American government to the British, Belgium and the African leaders are shown to be complicit in the death of over 10 million Africans. Don't miss this one it will help you understand the problems Africa faces today.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A18ZSMR1DW4VFW
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