King Leopold's ghost :
Hochschild, Adam,
King Leopold's ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa / Adam Hochschild. - First Mariner books edition. - 366 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 338-350) and index.
"The traders area kidnapping our people" -- "I shall not give up the chase" -- The fox crosses the dream -- The magnificent cake -- "The treaties must grant us everything" -- From Florida to Berlin -- Under the Yacht Club flag -- The first heretic -- Where there aren't no Ten Commandments -- Meeting Mr. Kurtz -- The wood that weeps -- A secret society of murderers -- David and Goliath -- Breaking into the thieves' kitchen -- To flood his deeds with day -- A reckoning -- "Journalists won't give you receipts" -- No man is a stranger -- Victory? -- The Great Forgetting -- Looking back: A personal afterword.
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million -- all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this story alive. He knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II.
9780618001903 0618001905 9780333661260 0333661265
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 6277 Sea Harbor Dr 5th Fl, Orlando, FL, USA, 32887 SAN 215-3793
2004271848
Léopold II, King of the Belgians, 1835-1909.
Forced labor--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--19th century.
Forced labor--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--20th century.
Indigenous peoples--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--19th century.
Indigenous peoples--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--20th century.
Human rights movements--History--19th century.
Human rights movements--History--20th century.
2013NEWDECEMBER.
Colonialism--history.
Politics.
Human Rights.
History, 19th Century.
History, 20th Century.
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Belgium.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Politics and government--1885-1908.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Race relations--History--19th century.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Race relations--History--20th century.
History.
Biographies.
Biographies.
DT655 / .H63 1999
967.51/022
King Leopold's ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa / Adam Hochschild. - First Mariner books edition. - 366 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 338-350) and index.
"The traders area kidnapping our people" -- "I shall not give up the chase" -- The fox crosses the dream -- The magnificent cake -- "The treaties must grant us everything" -- From Florida to Berlin -- Under the Yacht Club flag -- The first heretic -- Where there aren't no Ten Commandments -- Meeting Mr. Kurtz -- The wood that weeps -- A secret society of murderers -- David and Goliath -- Breaking into the thieves' kitchen -- To flood his deeds with day -- A reckoning -- "Journalists won't give you receipts" -- No man is a stranger -- Victory? -- The Great Forgetting -- Looking back: A personal afterword.
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million -- all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this story alive. He knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II.
9780618001903 0618001905 9780333661260 0333661265
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 6277 Sea Harbor Dr 5th Fl, Orlando, FL, USA, 32887 SAN 215-3793
2004271848
Léopold II, King of the Belgians, 1835-1909.
Forced labor--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--19th century.
Forced labor--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--20th century.
Indigenous peoples--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--19th century.
Indigenous peoples--History--Congo (Democratic Republic)--20th century.
Human rights movements--History--19th century.
Human rights movements--History--20th century.
2013NEWDECEMBER.
Colonialism--history.
Politics.
Human Rights.
History, 19th Century.
History, 20th Century.
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Belgium.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Politics and government--1885-1908.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Race relations--History--19th century.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Race relations--History--20th century.
History.
Biographies.
Biographies.
DT655 / .H63 1999
967.51/022