"An enthralling story . . . A work of history that reads like
a novel." — Christian Science Monitor
“As
Hochschild’s brilliant book demonstrates, the great Congo scandal
prefigured our own times . . . This book must be read and reread.”
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
In the late
nineteenth century, as the European powers were carving up Africa,
King Leopold II of Belgium carried out a brutal plundering of the
territory surrounding the Congo River. Ultimately slashing the area’s
population by ten million, he still managed to shrewdly cultivate his
reputation as a great humanitarian. A tale far richer than any
novelist could invent, King Leopold’s Ghost is the
horrifying account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions. It is
also the deeply moving portrait of those who defied Leopold: African
rebel leaders who fought against hopeless odds and a brave handful of
missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for
work or adventure but unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a
holocaust and participants in the twentieth century’s first great
human rights movement.
A National Book
Critics Circle Award Finalist
A New York Times
Notable Book