King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
A riveting and highly readable account of the Congo massacre, peopled by callous monarchs, corrupt adventurers and a handful of genuine heroes.
A riveting and highly readable account of the Congo massacre, peopled by callous monarchs, corrupt adventurers and a handful of genuine heroes.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780330441988 (0330441981)
Publish date: 2006
Publisher: Pan Books
Pages no: 376
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Biography,
History,
Academic,
School,
Cultural,
Africa,
Politics,
European History,
World History,
Belgium,
Historical
A very disturbing book that puts light on colonialism. Hochschild writers very well; at no point is the book boring nor does it read like a list. Hochschild is also even handed. He doesn't whitewash - good guys have flaws, and he mentions them. Hochschild does make the reader think about how the Wes...
‘Exterminate all the brutes!’ – Kurtz A very readable summary of one of the first real international human rights campaigns, a campaign focussed on that vast slab of central Africa once owned, not by Belgium, but personally by the Belgian King. The Congo Free State was a handy microcosm of coloniali...
bookshelves: one-penny-wonder, history, african-continent, afr-drcongo, afr-congo, nonfiction, paper-read, winter-20142015, victoriana, published-1998, tbr-busting-2015, colonial-overlords, filthy-lucre, holocaust-genocide, politics, a-questing-we-shall-go, adventure, belgium, betrayal, boo-scary, ...
If you ask an educated American to name the worst despots and atrocities of the twentieth century, you'll immediately hear such names as Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. Very few would name Leopold II, King of the Belgians and absolute master of the Belgian Congo. I wouldn't have before reading this...
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