"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

Item Information Item Information

Format: TradePaperback
Author: Hochschild, Adam
ISBN: 9780358212508
Condition: Used
Dimensions: 7.90 x 1.20
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Year: 2020

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

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