
King Leopold's Ghost
A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
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Narrated by:
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Geoffrey Howard
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By:
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Adam Hochschild
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II's vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms.
Correctly concluding that only slave labor on a vast scale could account for these cargoes, Morel resigned from his company and almost singlehandedly made Leopold's slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world. Thousands of people packed hundreds of meetings throughout the United States and Europe to learn about Congo atrocities. Two courageous black Americans - George Washington Williams and William Sheppard - risked much to bring evidence to the outside world. Roger Casement, later hanged by Britain as a traitor, conducted an eye-opening investigation of the Congo River stations.
Sailing into the middle of the story was a young steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming over all was Leopold II, King of the Belgians, sole owner of the only private colony in the world.
©1998 Adam Hochschild (P)2010 Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...




















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A sorry sad story
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On the one hand, there is the pure embodiment of lust, greed and sheer evil genius, King Leopold. If Leopold didn't exist, you'd almost have to invent him just to personify all the bad intentions and misdeeds that created the Congo Free State. But that's what's so amazing about this book -- people like Leopold actual existed and did the things that are described here. I always have trouble imagining a person of pure, unadulterated evil, just sheer badness with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The shorthand view for this person is always Hitler, but I think the cool thing about this book is bringing one to the realization that there are other Hitlers who existed in their own periods of time. Leopold did not have the military might of a Germany at his disposal, but he used every tool at his disposal to build a concentration camp for the people of the Congo -- not for racial cleansing or any high ideals like that, but just to line his own pockets. Wow.
And at the same time, there's the heros of this book -- none of whom have any of the money or power or connections of Leopold, but they use the one thing at their disposal eventually to bring him down. The truth. This part of the book actually made me wish for a time like the early 20th century, when we still had the capacity to be shocked by the sorts of abuses then happening in Leopold's Congo.
Anyway, do not miss this book. It is an awesome story that is all but forgotten in today's history overviews. I would give this book six stars if I could.
Buy this one -- you will not regret it
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Read this book, it's sickening but the truth
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A must read
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Amazing tale of a buried era
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Phenomenal & necessary!
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Excellent history
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The callous inhuman abuses heaped upon the African people by Europeans claiming to be civilizing them is mind boggling. Perhaps most shocking is how recently all of this occurred. Perhaps it took 2 World Wars to teach us empathy.
This history should be taught right alongside the holocaust, because the level of inhumanity is quite comparable, only were aren't talking about neural Nazis. These were perpetrated by what I've always believed were the peaceful Belgians.
The reading was superb, but ruined by poor editing and producing. It's normal for a reader to stop and reread a passage they wish to improve or to pickup the next session by rereading a line or 2 to get the pace set. But it is the editor's job to correctly edit the pieces together, not simply slam the reads together without trimming the redundancy off. This was disorienting and broke the flow of the story. In my opinion, very unprofessional.
The final distraction came at the end. The book has ended, then without any introduction another book begins, the entire introduction is read, about 24 minutes. Then the recording ends. I suppose it was a teaser to sell another book, but it seemed like a mistake on par with the other editing mistakes throughout the recording. I suspect this was simply awful producing and a lame teaser attempt.
In conclusion, great book whose audio production was awfully produced and edited.
Fascinating, educational, and sad
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The narrator was very eloquent.
I enjoyed the book from the standpoint of learning about the Congo. Was horrified at learning of practice of slavery and other human rights violations.
King Leopolds Ghost
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Exposing a hidden corner of history
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