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King Leopold's Ghost

Adam Hochschild

Kindle Edition | Pages: 442 pages

Rating: 4.16 | 38197 Users | 2540 Reviews

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Original Title:	King Leopold's Ghost ASIN B004KZOWEG
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Leopold II of Belgium
Setting:	Congo, Democratic Republic of the (Congo, the Democratic Republic of the) Congo Free State
Literary Awards:	Mark Lynton History Prize (1999), California Book Award for Nonfiction (Gold) (1998), Lionel Gelber Prize (1999), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Nonfiction (1998), Duff Cooper Prize (1999)

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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

Itemize Out Of Books King Leopold's Ghost

Title	:	King Leopold's Ghost
Author	:	Adam Hochschild
Book Format	:	Kindle Edition
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 442 pages
Published	:	September 3rd 1999 by Mariner Books (first published September 21st 1998)
Categories	:	History. Nonfiction. Cultural. Africa. Biography. Politics

Rating Out Of Books King Leopold's Ghost

Ratings: 4.16 From 38197 Users | 2540 Reviews

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This is a difficult book to review, because I am still thinking about it and probably will for some time. Of course I knew about King Leopold and his cruelty in the Congo, but nothing to this extent. The story Hochschild tells is one that left me consistently shocked, disgusted and deeply saddened and yet this is a book I would recommend to just about anyone. It strikes me again and again how cruel and vicious people can be to those they view as the "other", to those they view as someone less

This book took me several months to read because it was so disturbing. After reading a chapter and having nightmares, I'd put it away for something else, and then return to it once I'd finished with the other book.The atrocities committed in the Belgian Congo were nothing short of diabolical. And yet, shockingly, one of the worst genocides of the twentieth century remains relatively unheard of.I am a big fan of Adam Hochschild; he makes you feel like you're reading a novel rather than a

This is one of those essential books that anyone who wants to understand the history of Central Africa, and why the Democratic Republic of the Congo is such a difficult place today, should read. This book also makes clear why King Leopold II of Belgium belongs right up there with Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot as one of the greatest mass murderers in history. Leopold was way ahead of his time when it came to public relations and propaganda and some people, to this very day, still believe that

This work of popular history does a great job of bringing to life the story of King Leopold of Belgiums orchestration of a private empire in the Congo near the end of the 19th century. His greed driven campaign presaged the 20th century shenanigans with its use of political intrigue, bribery, media manipulation, and lies. The popular explorer Henry Morton Stanley was wooed and appropriated to make his dream become a reality. Its economic success was founded on the institutionalization of slave

Ten years before the discovery of America, the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão discovered the Congo River. 18 years later another Portuguese ship discovered Brazil. Thus began the lucrative slave trade to supply workers for Brazils mines and plantations. Congo ivory was sent to Europe in trade for cheap consumer goods but mostly for guns. The exploitation of the Congos resources was underway. By the late 19th century the Europeans were scrambling to dominate Africa and the heretofore impenetrable

A few things. First, I have read widely about Mao's Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward (40 to 70 million dead), Stalin's purges and programs of collectivization (20 million dead) and Hitler's genocide (11 million dead). I am largely unshockable. However, the avarice and deceit of King Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo (15 million dead) has been something of a revelation. I hereby enter his name in my Rogues Gallery roster. It is important that we remember what he perpetrated for his own

Horrifying story, rivetingly told. Regrettably, much of my reading of history has been centered primarily on the history of Europe and of the U.S. Hochschild's account of Belgium's exploitation of the Congo left me appalled. Despite the accounts of some truly savage atrocities, I ended up reading it in a couple of marathon sittings. A disturbing book, but one so well-written, I highly recommend it.