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Summary: Fascinating rarely told story
Review: Hochschild tells the story of the Belgian colonization of central Africa very well. I want to describe it in a way that reviewers typically describe a work of fiction but it is a true story. The book is meticulously footnoted and referenced yet reads like a novel.It tells the story of Leopold II of Belgium who ruled an area many times larger than his true country yet never set foot there. He was a master of P.R. who used the popular press to manipulate his way to tremendous wealth. Leopold's reign was brutal and devastating to an innocent population. The stories of many other players in this era are also very well told from heros like Morel and Casement who tried to put an end to the horror to rogues like the famous explorer, Stanley. Most interesting of all of them is the story of Stanley, famous for finding Livingstone, who's true past is explored in great detail. The wickedness of went on in present day Congo still echos today. This book give great insight to a sad, sad era.
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Summary: Excellent Treatment of an Unknown Period
Review: I loved this book and read it in one sitting. It is always fascinating to discover a period that historians have virtually ignored. One (anonymous) reviewer complained about the author's lack of credibility. Did he stop reading half way through? About a third of the book is citation. I have never read a more thoroughly researched project. The reviewer was from France I noticed. Perhaps he is worried about a similar expose of their African holdings during the same time period. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen Frenchy. My only regret is that the author, while he has written other books, doesn't have any more African histories. He has me hooked.
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Summary: A Frightening Look at the Building of an Empire
Review: This fine book, King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, looks at one man's attempt to build a personal empire and the devastating effect that has on an entirely different world only a continent away. King Leopold of Belgium carves out an empire on the backs of the people in the area he annexes around the Congo, ultimately causing the deaths of upwards of ten million people. This tale is not his alone and the intense pleasure and heartbreak of this piece of history is to see the struggle to fight against this man's schemes from both within the Congo and from outside the Congo in American and England. The history of one man's greed and grasp becomes the story of millions of people and ultimately a tale that is as important in its own time as it is today. A fine piece of historical writing on an important topic.
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Summary: A chilling story of greed and terror in colonial Africa!
Review: The recordings in this book finely epitomize the greed and terror wielded by the ghosts of those greedy and grey white men of the past. All done in the name of "honey"! The book plainly shows how these deeds of evil can actually be interpreted as having [had] a direct bearing on the crumbling status quo of today's vast Congo, even of today's Africa. And since Leopold's ruthless tactics are just one European example, among many, there were other white men like him -- hungry, greedy and grey; who were "restless", it seems, and always hunting for treasure, scrounging for a living in Africa! The book boldly unmasks famous names like Henry Morton Stanley and the reader is shown just how brutal and low the human conscience can sink, and yet we know and read about all these adventurous men today as "heroes" or "pioneers" or something similar to that. Wow! ... ??? I very much enjoyed reading this book, although the brutality in it didn't really surprise me. There are still many people in our world today who would openly brag about this evil. A good reading!
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Summary: Seriously flawed...
Review: Well, well, well... I found all the previous reviews intertaining but also disturbing at the same time. Here are people who have little to NO way to tell the veracity of the content of this book writing down their feeling about a slice of history they don't know anything about. That Leopold II was a rather controversial character is well known and documented. He was no saint. But the book is seriously flawed because while half of what is being said is true the other half is pure crap! And the result is a wonderful fiction with a vilain that only a novellist would dream of. At the end very far from fact and history. Same regarding the colonial time of Belgium in Africa which was hardly a example of good colonialism but which one was ? Not defending them at all, Belgium's colonial time was by far not the worst. Look to the British colonies for that matter. At the end I am very disturb not by this book in particular but by the fact that as time pass some writer can write just about anything, taking great liberty with facts, making a travesty of history, getting away with it, and on the top of it reaping fame and praise from an uncritical crowd. This book could be placed not too far from those revisionist books that claim that WWII German extermination camps didn't really exist. With the insatiable American love for fictions we can prepare ourselves for more of that kind of "histories"... As a last word, I like to add that I never take the time to write a review on a topic on which I am not familiar.
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Summary: A Who-dunnit of History in Africa
Review: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild is a must-read for anyone who has ever questioned the myth versus the reality of any subject. In the style of a who-dunnit, the intrigue and hypocrisy of King Leopold of Belgium is detailed in a fascinating, page-turning way. From the discovery of who the famous explorer Stanley really was, to what the colony of the Congo was really set up to be, Hochschild spins a tale of (as he so succinctly puts it) "...Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa." Anyone who ever thought that globalization was invented in this century would find the book well worth reading, if only to learn how globalized our world has been for centuries. Hochschild has sought out and gathered under one cover historical documents from those who were there, including the usually forgotten Africans who were disenfranchised of their land and all too often, their freedom and lives. If more history was written in this enthralling manner, reminiscent of Daniel Yergen's monumental opus The Prize (The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power), perhaps there would be more interest in history as a good read, rather than something you study in school.
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Summary: The Epitome of Historical Tragedy
Review: King Leopold's Ghost provides a vivid account of an episode in the modern history of Africa that was the epitome of tragedy. In this book, Adam Hochschild concerns himself with the looting of the Congo and the destruction of its peoples by a cousin of Queen Victoria, King Leopold of the Belgians. The story is told through a succession of biographical sketches of the principal villains and heroes, the former being Leopold's accomplices and the latter his opponents. Hochschild, though bent on illuminating a great human tragedy, allows himself and the reader several curious and even piquant digressions. The first suspicion that these digressions are only there to spice up the story is belied when the author manages to make them highly relevant, such as the connection between Leopold's unsuccessful wedding night and his all-consuming desire in the Congo. Hochschild begins this book by reminding us of the figure of Affonso I, the sixteenth-century Christian King of the Kongo, pious son of a ruler converted by the Portuguese. Affonso wrote a series of eloquent letters to the Portuguese king complaining that the slave traders were depopulating his kingdom and even seizing members of the royal family. The Portuguese, however, had meanwhile discovered a traffic more profitable than gold and they were not about to give it up. Leopold, the figurehead monarch of a small country, successfully acquired a realm larger than France, Italy and Germany combined. For many of the new imperial powers, collecting colonies was not particularly profitable, but Leopold, through a strange mix of luck, cunning, ruthlessness and breathtaking hypocrisy, managed to gain a huge fortune. Leopold favored a quick killing in the Congo because it was clear that the boom in wild rubber would eventually be overtaken by the planting of commercial rubber plantations. He joined forces with others to suppress forces within the Congo and bleed it dry. Leopold's Force Publique had an officer corps of well-paid desperadoes recruited from all over Europe, characters resembling Kurtz in Conrad's chilling Heart of Darkness. Leopold's vicious experiment combined some of the latest techniques of European industry steamboats, machine guns and railways with a sure understanding of traditional African bondage and brigandage, and of the ways they could be bent to his purpose. The slave-traders became the best recruiters both for the Force Publique and for the porters who carried the rubber to the river or to the railhead. Sadly, Leopold's enterprise enjoyed the blessing of the United States despite the fact that it flew in the face of its supposed anti-slavery, anti-colonial and republican principles. The indulgence of Europe's colonial powers was less surprising given the rampant racism and imperialism of the time. There were a few anti-slavery zealots who objected to the "magnificent work of exploration" with which Leopold was credited. (Interestingly, Leopold maintained tight personal control without ever going near the Congo.) The journalist George W. Williams wrote an angry pamphlet denouncing Leopold's brutal regime but died shortly afterwards. Hochschild does not end this book on a comfortable note. Conditions in the Congo barely improved, and the harsh but effective methods pioneered by Leopold were taken up by yet other colonial powers. The outbreak of war in Europe soon furnished its own lessons in industrial slaughter, making Leopold's war on the people of the Congo seem like little more than a dress rehearsal. Although tragic, King Leopold's Ghost is an exemplary piece of history writing: urgent, vivid and most compelling.
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Summary: Countering Conservative Political Correctness
Review: What a book! Although they would never admit it, this book surely shoots down the right's long held belief that evil oppression took place before the creation of Marxist Communist regimes. The treatment of native Africans by royal European colonialists was so attrocious and reprehensible that even William F. Buckley should be moved to condemn it. This book also reinforces the thought that a European in Africa with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other is a threat to the life and property of the native population.
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Summary: Good but Narrowly Focused
Review: Adam Hochschild's book is well written and engaging. It bluntly tells the tale of a horrific period in human history. What the book does well, in addition to describing Leopold's imperial activities, is paint character portraits of the major actors on the stage: Leopold and Stanley in particular, as well as some lesser known opponents of imperialism. It is a great, if disturbing, read that doesn't break new ground for people familar with the time period. The most obnoxious quality of the book is Hochschild's need to insert his morals into the book. All too often, while reading about gross abuses in the Congo or ideas current in the late 19thC but not popular now, Hochschild has to remind the reader that he, of course, does not approve of certain actions or thoughts. This tendency will gate on your nerves after a point as the "reminders" are hardly needed given the vividness about the crimes he writes about. Where the books fails is in it's scope. Hochschild's book leads to the perception that African imperialism was a money making venuture or resource bonanza that generated vast wealth. While true for Leopold and other individuals (Cecil Rhodes is another) imperialism, for the nations involved, was a finacial disaster. Hochschild peers into the Belgian side of the Congo venture infrequently and misses the money loser the Congo was for them- it is easy to make a profit when someone else pays for the infrastructure. The German colony in Togo was considered a marvel because it broke even one year. Leopold's venture and his personal results differ greatly from the experience of European state in the Scramble for Africa.
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Summary: A Chilling Ghost That Continues To Haunt
Review: Contemporary historians have been widely criticized for their insistence that they write only for a doctoral audience. Analizing the effects of the Pequod War and birth-control methods in 14th century France hardly exite the curious, historical mind. Hochschild's chilling account of the rape and pillage of the Congo is not only well-researched and composed, but appeals to everyone as it focuses both on the heroism and depravity of human existence. Une oeuvre formidable...
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