King Leopold's Ghost

<b> An enthralling story . . . A work of history that reads like a novel. -- <i>Christian Science Monitor</i> <br> As Hochschild's brilliant book demonstrates the great Congo scandal prefigured our own times . . . This book must be read and reread. -- <i>Los Angeles Times Book Review</i></b> <p/> 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 area's 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<i> King Leopold's Ghost </i>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 century's first great human rights movement. <p/> A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist <br> A <i>New York Times</i> Notable Book