King Leopold's Ghost

The 25th Anniversary Edition, with a foreword by Barbara Kingsolver"An enthralling story . . A work of history that reads like a novel. " Christian Science Monitor As Hochschilds brilliant book demonstrates, the great Congo scandal prefigured our own times . . This book must be read and reread. Los Angeles Times Book ReviewA National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist * A New York Times Notable Book 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 areas 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 Leopolds 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 centurys first great human rights movement.