About this title: In the late 1890s Edmund Morel, a shipping company official working in Antwerp, noticed something suspicious. When his company's ships docked from the Congo, they were filled with valuable cargoes of rubber and ivory. Yet when they sailed back to Africa they carried nothing in exchange. Nothing, that is, except soldiers, military supplies and ...
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Edition: First Issue In This Edition
Binding: Card Cover
Publisher: Pan Books, London
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780330492331ISBN:0330492330
Description: Very Good. Very good. Book described: 'Hochschild has a riveting story to tell, and does it justice. He has used all the best sources, is painstaking and meticulous, and is aware of all the dark parallels in his tale. ' 366 pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780330441988ISBN:0330441981
Description: New. A hundred years ago, enlightened people in the western world were outraged by a holocaust in Africa which left millions dead. Conan Doyle wrote a pamphlet on the Congo atrocities which sold 25, 000 copies in the first week alone. Yet today not one pers... read more
Description: New. We are no longer able to guarantee delivery by Christmas. Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. ISBN10: 0330441981. read more
Edition: First Edition 2nd Impression
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Macmillan, London
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780333661260ISBN:0333661265
Description: Fine in Near Fine jacket. 8vo-over 5¾"-6'' Tall. This is a Fine Copy of this hardcover book in black cloth with gilt title lettering to the spine, in a Near Near Fine Dust-Jacket with NO chips or tears to the outer edges of the dust-jacket, slight rubbing to head of spine. Not price clipped and this copy has NO previous inscriptions present. Clean copy internally, 8vo 367pp First Edition 2nd Impression. read more
Binding: Audio Cassette
Publisher: Books on Tape
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780736649179ISBN:0736649174
Description: Very Good. RARE Audiobook In Great Condition With Little Wear, All 9 Tapes and Case Intact! ! ! Uanabridged. Ex-Library. 100% Money Back Guarantee! ! ! We Ship Immediately! ! ! Recycle An Old Book and Support World Literacy Today! ! ! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Pan Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780330492331ISBN:0330492330
Description: Published by Pan Books in 2002. Binding: Paperback. Number of pages: 384. Condition: Like NEW. No defects, may have been previously read. Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: MACMILLAN
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780333661260ISBN:0333661265
Description: Published by Macmillan in 1999. Binding: Hardback without Dust jacket. Number of pages: 400. Condition: Good. Used book but in Good Condition for sensible price. #8486595 Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
"King Leopold was king of Belgium in the late 1800s early 1900s. He desparately wanted a colony, but most were taken. He devised a way to take over the Congo. I did not know much about this part of the world (still probably don't). This book is very informative and well researched. There are a lot of characters to keep track of. I skimmed a few places, but overall felt amused at a few fun characters, outraged at the slavery and cruelty, but impressed with Leopold's ability to interact with the leading rulers of the day and finagle a huge piece of Africa for himself legally, without anyone realizing it. He even manipulated his own country into paying for "improvements" when he kept nearly all of the millions and millions he made. Leopold is a terrible person, but also a genius.
It was a struggle to get through the book at times, but the first person sources and stories added significantly to help me understand this part of the world a little better."
"Wow, fabulous book! I should have read this years ago. Hochschild gives a very readable account of King Leopold of Belgium's annexation of the Congo for personal profit. This is an incredible true story, well told. The book draws subtle but powerful parallels between the colonial system and the way some multinational corporations structure their operations in developing countries. It also challenges the differentiation of Congo and other colonial territories, and remembers some really wonderful human rights defenders who have been forgotten. One of the things I found challenging, as a lawyer, was the relative weakness of neutral, summary type reporting that doesn't allow the voices of individuals emerge in a sufficiently powerful way. It also highlights but doesn't answer the question of how to sustain momentum in campaigns against ongoing human rights violations, where the violations received intense media coverage and then drifted out of prominence."
"On 30 June 1960, Belgium's King Baudouin arrived in Leopoldville to end eighty years of colonial rule in the Congo. In his speech, the king described the Congo's independence as "the crowning glory" of his ancestor , King Leopold II's work, and declared that Belgium's finest had delivered the land from slavery while creating a modern, civilised society.
Congolese listening to this might have had cause to wonder whether the king had lost his mind. For, as Adam Hochschild relates, the true story of Belgian rule in the Congo is one of deceit, greed and mass murder.
Hochschild charts the sorry history of colonialism in the Congo, starting in the 19th century with Leopold II's vainglorious campaign for a place in the sun. Using his legendary charm, Leopold persuaded the world that his intentions towards the vast area surrounding the mighty Congo river were purely philanthropic. A committee established to manage the colony was swiftly sidelined, and by claiming it in his own name, Leopold by-passed the Belgian parliament altogether. Once in control, the king was free to plunder the Congo's resources and enslave its people as he pleased.
All of this was done by proxy; Leopold never visited the domain that was 76 times the size of his own kingdom. He saw no need to set foot in a territory that was bringing forth precious goods, such as ivory and rubber, to finance his grand building projects at home. While his hand-picked officials were handsomely rewarded, the Congolese natives barely had enough to eat.
Dominant though his presence is, Leopold is not the only memorable figure in the Congo story. The book is enlivened by other characters, vividly portrayed by the author. Henry Morton Stanley, for example, (best known for his famous encounter with David Livingstone), is depicted as hot headed and frightened of intimacy. But the great explorer's loyalty to Leopold was a crucial component in the colonisation of the Congo. In contrast was Leopold's nemesis. A hurricane in human form, Edmund Morel unleashed a firestorm of opposition to the king's stewardship of his colony. With mounting horror, Morel uncovered the true nature of Leopold's place in the sun.
It's now thought that between eight and ten million people died during Leopold II's catastrophic stewardship of the Congo. Most were Congolese natives, many of them murdered as part of a sadistic programme of forced labour. Those unwilling to work in the rubber plantations were liable to be mutilated or beaten to death with a hippo-hide whip.
Morel's campaign against the atrocities spread far and wide. His cause was aided by a report from another fascinating character. Roger Casemount, an Irish official in the British consular service, journeyed to the region, and his first-hand account of the pitiful conditions and brutality inflicted on the people of the Congo turned public opinion against Leopold.
When he knew the game was up, Leopold made a desperate attempt to cover his tracks. It's said the furnaces in Brussels burned for eight full days to destroy his Congo archives. But even in handing over his colony to the Belgian government, Leopold emerged a winner: for a handsome sum, he sold the Congo to his own country.
Occasionally, the author points to parallels between colonial rule in the the Congo and the tyrannical regimes of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. But Hochschild steps back from describing Leopold's rule as genocide: for the colonialists, mass murder had more to do with personal enrichment than with ethnic cleansing. However, he isn't so reticent about pointing the finger at the track records of other colonial powers. The pitiful conditions in the Belgian Congo were replicated in colonies administered by the French, British, Germans and Americans.
After Leopold's death, and even post-independence, things got no better for the Congo. Hochschild chronicles the country's miserable record of corruption, coups d'etat, war and poverty. The region that has more hydroelectric potential than all the lakes and rivers of the United States and which produced the lion's share of uranium for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs is as poor today as it was when Stanley first arrived.
In the book's latest edition, a fascinating afterword recounts the extraordinary impact Hochschild's story has had. Especially interesting was the reaction in Belgium. The country seemed to undergo a national re-examination of conscience, and at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels, the first steps were made to give a more truthful version of the Congo's history.
Hochschild doesn't hide his frustration that he was unable to unearth more testimonies from the Congolese natives. The accounts by Morel and Casemount go some way to uncovering the story, but there is no substitute for the personal stories of those on the receiving end of tyranny. Even those fighting in the natives' cause did not think their views worthy of record. However, Hochshcild's afterword includes some hopeful instances of those wrongs being righted.
After King Baudouin had finished his patronising speech, at last an African voice was heard. The Congo's new prime minister Patrice Lumumba rose to respond,and began reeling off a list of humanitarian crimes committed under Belgian rule. Far from being gifted their freedom, Lumumba declared, the Congolese had won independence by fighting for it.
"We are proud of this struggle, amid tears, fire and blood, down to our very heart of hearts, for it was a noble and just struggle, an indispensible struggle if we were to put an end to the humiliating slavery that had been forced upon us."
As a rejoinder to King Leopold's appalling regime, Lumumba's eloquence has yet to be surpassed. But as a record of the lasting damage caused by colonialism, Hochschild's book may well be seen as enduring and definitive."
"It seems weird to say I enjoyed this book since it's about a horrific time in African colonial history--King Leopold of Belgium's creation and rule of the Congo--but I did. It's extremely well written and well researched. The story captures you, and the characters are intriguing. It traces the history of the Congo region, the history of European contact in the region, and in greater detail how Leopold set up the colony and ruthlessly used forced labor to extract hugely profitable amounts of rubber for about 20 years. It also tracks Leopold's critics and the international human rights campaign that grew to oppose his regime. The author reveals how, in strikingly modern ways, Leopold waged public relations campaigns to cover up the atrocities, and how his opponents (including a wide cast of interesting characters) struck back in the media of the time. While celebrating the efforts of Leopold's opponents, the author does a good job of staying objective and questioning the motives, methods, and results even of the 'good guys.' He views the story with an appropriately critical eye, casting some part of the blame to all parties while also compassionately lamenting the state of affairs and the injustices done. I originally bought this book for a class, but only part of it was assigned reading, and I'm glad that 2 years later I sat down to read the whole thing."
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