King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

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

Author: Adam Hochschild

First Published: 1998

No. of Pages: 306

Synopsis (from B&N): "In the 1880's, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and largely unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed the population by ten million--all while shrewdly cultivating his international reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose this secret crime finally led to the first great international human rights movement of the 20th century in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated.

King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting portrait of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply involving story of those who fought Leopold and of the explorers, missionaries, and rubber workers who witnessed the horror. With a cast of characters richer than any novelist could invent, this book will permanently inscribe these too long forgotten events on the conscience of the West."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Nonfiction

Comments and Critique: Despite partially majoring in history in college, I have little knowledge of African history, so I thought this book would be one step in rectifying that gap. The book is well-written and gives enough personal information about the major players to really bring them to life. The story told is nothing less than horrific, although the use of the term "genocide" is not entirely accurate (this is also pointed out by the author), as genocide is normally understood to mean the intentional killing of a national or ethnic group and not killing done for economic reasons. Obviously, the terminology is not nearly as important as what actually happened and the author pulls no punches when presenting the evidence. While the focus of the book is the events that occurred at the turn of the last century, the author also points out how the developed nations, especially the U.S., contributed to the ongoing problems in Africa throughout the 20th century. This is not a book to make you feel warm and fuzzy but it is an important book for anyone wanting to understand the world economy and the beginnings of the human rights movement.

Challenges: World Citizen