King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
by Adam Hochschild

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $5.92
You Save: $9.08 (61%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.87 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Adam Hochschild
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1999-10
ISBN: 0618001905
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Mariner Books

Book Reviews of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

Book Review: Rich and informative.
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Summary of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

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
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.

Democratic Republic of Congo Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in African Reading List
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) ImageThe No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)
by Alexander Mccall Smith
Pantheon; Published: 2005-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops: $21.95
Birds of Southern Africa (Princeton Field Guides) ImageBirds of Southern Africa (Princeton Field Guides)
by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Warwick Tarboton
Princeton University Press; Published: 2002-09-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.94
Price in other shops: $35.00
Africa ImageAfrica
by Blaine Harden
Flamingo; Published: 1992-11-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.33
Price in other shops: $20.65
The Shadow of the Sun ImageThe Shadow of the Sun
by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Vintage; Published: 2002-04-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops: $15.00
Don't Let's Go to Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood ImageDon't Let's Go to Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
Pan Macmillan; Published: 2003-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.16
The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War ImageThe Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War
by Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva
Basic Books; Published: 2001-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.77
Price in other shops: $16.95
The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts ImageThe Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
by Amos Tutuola
Grove Press; Published: 1993-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $16.00
African Game Trails: The Classic Big Game Safari ImageAfrican Game Trails: The Classic Big Game Safari
by Theodore Roosevelt
The Narrative Press; Published: 2001-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.06
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, and Primates ImageThe Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, and Primates
by Richard D. Estes
Chelsea Green Publishing Company; Published: 1999-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.82
Price in other shops: $30.00
An Ice-Cream War: A Novel ImageAn Ice-Cream War: A Novel
by William Boyd
Vintage; Published: 1999-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: $15.95
Similar Books and other products
Africa: A Biography of the Continent ImageAfrica: A Biography of the Continent
by John Reader
Vintage; Published: 1999-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $18.95
God's Bits of Wood (AWS African Writers Series) ImageGod's Bits of Wood (AWS African Writers Series)
by Sembene Ousmane
Heinemann; Published: 1996-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.56
Price in other shops: $13.95
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide ImageA Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
by Samantha Power
Basic Books; Published: 2002-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $56.39
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya ImageImperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
by Caroline Elkins
Owl Books; Published: 2005-12-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $17.00
The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence ImageThe Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence
by Martin Meredith
PublicAffairs; Published: 2006-06-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.95
Price in other shops: $21.95
Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) ImageHeart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Joseph Conrad
Dover Publications; Published: 1990-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.13
Price in other shops: $1.50
Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves ImageBury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
by Adam Hochschild
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 2005-01-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $30.64
The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912 ImageThe Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912
by Thomas Pakenham
Avon Books; Published: 1992-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops: $23.95
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo ImageIn the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo
by Michela Wrong
Harper Perennial; Published: 2002-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.61
Price in other shops: $14.95
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda ImageWe Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
by Philip Gourevitch
Picador; Published: 1999-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $15.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories