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

By Adam Hochschild

Book Overview

Documents the plundering of the territory.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618001905
• ISBN13: 9780618001903
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Absorbing and horrifying!

One of the best indictments of colonialism that I have ever read, King Leopold's Ghost is obsensively a book about power and greed. Leopold, a King of a small country and a man with very limited powers, decides that he desperately needs to find a colony where he can reign supreme. He finally discovers Central Africa, a place that hasn't been gobbled up by the other colonizing powers, and claims it for his own. What ensues is one of the most brutal subjegations in recorded history. King Leopold's reign in the Congo was so vicious that even the other colonial powers of the day had to condemn him.This book is the story of a man that was so greedy- even the pretext of humanitarian aims were summarily ignored during his rule.One of the things I liked most about this book is that it deflates the hero status of people like Henry Morton Stanley- an insecure man who shot Africans for sport. In his place, Hochschild has given us people like E.D.Morel, William Sheppard, Roger Casement and Hezekiah Shanu to look up to. People who tried to make a difference when it wasn't popular to do so. This book is the very sad story of how the ego of one puny despot lead to the deaths of millions.Informative, honest and well written- I highly recommend this book.