About this title: First published in 1999, Hochschild provides a riveting account of the Congo massacres, peopled by callous monarchs, corrupt adventurers and a handful of genuine heroes. This exemplary piece of history writing gives the facts that caused those atrocities.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Papermac
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780333765449ISBN:0333765443
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Papermac
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780333765449ISBN:0333765443
Description: Acceptable. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Trade)
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780618001903ISBN:0618001905
Description: Acceptable. The cover is slightly creased. The spine is slightly ripped. The edge of this book are yellow and dust. The book has a few stained pages. Has a pen mark on the edge **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780395759240ISBN:0395759242
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780618001903ISBN:0618001905
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Name is on the inside cover. Pages are tanning. Cover has some wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 384 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: NEW ED
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: PAN MACMILLAN Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780330441988ISBN:0330441981
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 356 pages. (356 pages) a hundred years ago, enlightened people in the western world were outraged by a holocaust in africa which left millions dead. conan doyle wrote a pamphlet on the congo atrocities which sold 25, 000 copies in the first week alone. yet today not one person in a thousand could say what the fuss was all about, this book tells the story. illustrations, map, edition new ed (Paperback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 1999-10
ISBN-13:9780618001903ISBN:0618001905
Description: Very Good. Paperback. Clean book with light bends in spine from reading and may have a bookstore stamp inside the cover. Quick response! read more
Description: Fine. Trade Paperback. Mariner Books, 1999. Fine Book. Overall, a clean and tight, lightly read copy. Media mail packed in protective bubble lined shipping bags, Priority in a Flat Rate Envelope. Shipped quickly. Prompt response to questions. read more
"King Leopold was king of Belgium in the late 1800s early 1900s. He desparately wanted a colony, but most were taken. He devised a way to take over the Congo. I did not know much about this part of the world (still probably don't). This book is very informative and well researched. There are a lot of characters to keep track of. I skimmed a few places, but overall felt amused at a few fun characters, outraged at the slavery and cruelty, but impressed with Leopold's ability to interact with the leading rulers of the day and finagle a huge piece of Africa for himself legally, without anyone realizing it. He even manipulated his own country into paying for "improvements" when he kept nearly all of the millions and millions he made. Leopold is a terrible person, but also a genius.
It was a struggle to get through the book at times, but the first person sources and stories added significantly to help me understand this part of the world a little better."
"Wow, fabulous book! I should have read this years ago. Hochschild gives a very readable account of King Leopold of Belgium's annexation of the Congo for personal profit. This is an incredible true story, well told. The book draws subtle but powerful parallels between the colonial system and the way some multinational corporations structure their operations in developing countries. It also challenges the differentiation of Congo and other colonial territories, and remembers some really wonderful human rights defenders who have been forgotten. One of the things I found challenging, as a lawyer, was the relative weakness of neutral, summary type reporting that doesn't allow the voices of individuals emerge in a sufficiently powerful way. It also highlights but doesn't answer the question of how to sustain momentum in campaigns against ongoing human rights violations, where the violations received intense media coverage and then drifted out of prominence."
"On 30 June 1960, Belgium's King Baudouin arrived in Leopoldville to end eighty years of colonial rule in the Congo. In his speech, the king described the Congo's independence as "the crowning glory" of his ancestor , King Leopold II's work, and declared that Belgium's finest had delivered the land from slavery while creating a modern, civilised society.
Congolese listening to this might have had cause to wonder whether the king had lost his mind. For, as Adam Hochschild relates, the true story of Belgian rule in the Congo is one of deceit, greed and mass murder.
Hochschild charts the sorry history of colonialism in the Congo, starting in the 19th century with Leopold II's vainglorious campaign for a place in the sun. Using his legendary charm, Leopold persuaded the world that his intentions towards the vast area surrounding the mighty Congo river were purely philanthropic. A committee established to manage the colony was swiftly sidelined, and by claiming it in his own name, Leopold by-passed the Belgian parliament altogether. Once in control, the king was free to plunder the Congo's resources and enslave its people as he pleased.
All of this was done by proxy; Leopold never visited the domain that was 76 times the size of his own kingdom. He saw no need to set foot in a territory that was bringing forth precious goods, such as ivory and rubber, to finance his grand building projects at home. While his hand-picked officials were handsomely rewarded, the Congolese natives barely had enough to eat.
Dominant though his presence is, Leopold is not the only memorable figure in the Congo story. The book is enlivened by other characters, vividly portrayed by the author. Henry Morton Stanley, for example, (best known for his famous encounter with David Livingstone), is depicted as hot headed and frightened of intimacy. But the great explorer's loyalty to Leopold was a crucial component in the colonisation of the Congo. In contrast was Leopold's nemesis. A hurricane in human form, Edmund Morel unleashed a firestorm of opposition to the king's stewardship of his colony. With mounting horror, Morel uncovered the true nature of Leopold's place in the sun.
It's now thought that between eight and ten million people died during Leopold II's catastrophic stewardship of the Congo. Most were Congolese natives, many of them murdered as part of a sadistic programme of forced labour. Those unwilling to work in the rubber plantations were liable to be mutilated or beaten to death with a hippo-hide whip.
Morel's campaign against the atrocities spread far and wide. His cause was aided by a report from another fascinating character. Roger Casemount, an Irish official in the British consular service, journeyed to the region, and his first-hand account of the pitiful conditions and brutality inflicted on the people of the Congo turned public opinion against Leopold.
When he knew the game was up, Leopold made a desperate attempt to cover his tracks. It's said the furnaces in Brussels burned for eight full days to destroy his Congo archives. But even in handing over his colony to the Belgian government, Leopold emerged a winner: for a handsome sum, he sold the Congo to his own country.
Occasionally, the author points to parallels between colonial rule in the the Congo and the tyrannical regimes of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. But Hochschild steps back from describing Leopold's rule as genocide: for the colonialists, mass murder had more to do with personal enrichment than with ethnic cleansing. However, he isn't so reticent about pointing the finger at the track records of other colonial powers. The pitiful conditions in the Belgian Congo were replicated in colonies administered by the French, British, Germans and Americans.
After Leopold's death, and even post-independence, things got no better for the Congo. Hochschild chronicles the country's miserable record of corruption, coups d'etat, war and poverty. The region that has more hydroelectric potential than all the lakes and rivers of the United States and which produced the lion's share of uranium for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs is as poor today as it was when Stanley first arrived.
In the book's latest edition, a fascinating afterword recounts the extraordinary impact Hochschild's story has had. Especially interesting was the reaction in Belgium. The country seemed to undergo a national re-examination of conscience, and at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels, the first steps were made to give a more truthful version of the Congo's history.
Hochschild doesn't hide his frustration that he was unable to unearth more testimonies from the Congolese natives. The accounts by Morel and Casemount go some way to uncovering the story, but there is no substitute for the personal stories of those on the receiving end of tyranny. Even those fighting in the natives' cause did not think their views worthy of record. However, Hochshcild's afterword includes some hopeful instances of those wrongs being righted.
After King Baudouin had finished his patronising speech, at last an African voice was heard. The Congo's new prime minister Patrice Lumumba rose to respond,and began reeling off a list of humanitarian crimes committed under Belgian rule. Far from being gifted their freedom, Lumumba declared, the Congolese had won independence by fighting for it.
"We are proud of this struggle, amid tears, fire and blood, down to our very heart of hearts, for it was a noble and just struggle, an indispensible struggle if we were to put an end to the humiliating slavery that had been forced upon us."
As a rejoinder to King Leopold's appalling regime, Lumumba's eloquence has yet to be surpassed. But as a record of the lasting damage caused by colonialism, Hochschild's book may well be seen as enduring and definitive."
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