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Editorial Review:
Years ago, Adam Hochschild came across a reference to the "five to eight million lives" destroyed in the colonial exploitation of the Congo. Startled, he realised that this had been "one of the major killing grounds of modern times. Why were these deaths not mentioned in the standard litany of our century's horrors?" His corrective history makes sobering and gripping reading. In King Leopold of Belgium, who decided to buy himself an empire to compensate for his country's smallness, he portrays a villain of Shakespearian dimensions. Aided by Stanley (of "Mr Livingstone I Presume" fame) the king appropriated a section of central Africa the size of Western Europe as his personal territory. The appalling brutality that ensued, as Europeans plundered the country for rubber and ivory, is vividly captured by Hochschild. He manages to leaven the horror with touches of grotesque humour--for instance, when tricking tribal chiefs into signing away their land for bales of cloth, Stanley would, to impress his dupes, secrete a battery in his pocket with the wires in his palm, so that on shaking hands the chief "was greatly surprised to find his white brother so strong that he nearly knocked him off his feet". Hochschild has something of Simon Schama's gift for populist history; and among other things he provides astonishing background to Joseph Conrad's Congo-set masterpiece, Heart of Darkness. --Adam Roberts
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Leopold II: King Of The Congo, King Of Hell This is a stunning account of Belgium's King Leopold II's rape and plunder of the Congo. His agents and officials dealt misery and death to millions of Congolese and subjugated the unfortunate natives with ferocious brutality. Meanwhile the King of the Congo (and Belgium) got fat off the staggering profits of ivory and rubber. This greedy consuming devil was master of planting friendly stories in the western press, cajoling, bribing, threatening and shouting to the world how much good he was doing in the... more info
An emotional introduction to the history of Colonialism I bought this book in a small dusty bookstore in an out of the way town, after reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'The Poisonwood Bible', set in the Congo and following the lives of an American Missionary and his family. I didn't imagine that I would be as moved as I have been having finished Adam Hochschild's book, and now understand so much more about the legacy of colonialism, not just in the Congo, but across the world. Sure, it's written in an easy to understand and follow format which undoubtedly skims... more info
excellent Not sure where some of the other reviewers are coming from on this book. It is first rate: entertaining, informative, well written. A real page turner. I live in Belgium and am familiar with some of the issues the book is concerned with, particularly the absence of any collective guilt about where so much of the money that built so many monuments actually came from. Strongly recommended if you enjoy reading and want to be educated at the same time....
Cursed with Wealth The coldly-executed, bloody-minded exploitation of the Congo by King Leopold and his business partners is a story well-worth repeating. At times his conduct is so disgraceful as to force one to a variety of admiration. The ruthless self-interest has surely been a model for later exploiters of Africa (of whatever hue) but few can have stolen as much (once adjusted for current prices) as the King. Such a great evil summoned forth worthy opponents though at all stages they seem to have had to break through... more info
