King Leopold's Ghost

by Frederic P. Miller (Editor), Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! King Leopold's Ghost is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908. The book aims to increase public awareness of crimes committed by European colonial rulers in Africa. It was refused by nine of the ten U.S. publishing houses to which an outline was submitted, but became an unexpected bestseller and won the prestigious Mark Lynton History Prize for literary style. By 2005, some 400,000 copies were in print in a dozen languages. The title is adopted from the poem The Congo, by Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay. Condemning Leopold's actions, Lindsay wrote: Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost, / Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host. The book is the basis of a 2006 documentary film of the same name, directed by Pippa Scott and narrated by Don Cheadle.

68 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2010

About the author

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Reviews

[Robin Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently this is a different edition, I used the audio version which is well.done. Brutal period of African and European history. Unfortunately history cannot be changed.

[Rose Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and disturbing account of he Belgium colonization of the Congo. According to the book King Leopold II was able to acquire this massive land by cunning and deceit.The indigenous population was exploited to harvest rubber plants which enriched the King greatly. The author also relates who assisted the King in this endeavor and the brave men who spent most of their lives exposing his reign of terror.
The cruelty to which the native population had to suffer is described in graphic detail and can be hard to read.

[Laurie Pepper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating. Horrible. Fascinating. The most appalling story of a truly evil man who corrupted others and destroyed so many innocent human beings. And yet is is about empire building. Few imperialist countries were so blatant, however, with their bad behavior or lied so completely about their motives. I'm always amazed by what lies people get away with in their ambition to achieve power.