An edition of King Leopold's ghost (1998)

King Leopold's ghost

a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa

1st Mariner Books ed.
  • 4.0 (4 ratings) ·
  • 87 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 9 Have read
Not in Library

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 4.0 (4 ratings) ·
  • 87 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 9 Have read

Buy this book

Last edited by MARC Bot
September 12, 2024 | History
An edition of King Leopold's ghost (1998)

King Leopold's ghost

a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa

1st Mariner Books ed.
  • 4.0 (4 ratings) ·
  • 87 Want to read
  • 4 Currently reading
  • 9 Have read

"In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River." "King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust."--BOOK JACKET.

Publish Date
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Language
English
Pages
366

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: King Leopold's Ghost
King Leopold's Ghost
Feb 01, 2012, Pan Publishing
paperback
Cover of: King Leopold's Ghost
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
April 2006, Mariner Books
in English
Cover of: King Leopold's Ghost
King Leopold's Ghost
June 21, 2002, Pan Books
Paperback - New Ed edition
Cover of: Schatten über dem Kongo
Schatten über dem Kongo: Die Geschichte eines der großen, fast vergessenen Menschheitsverbrechen
2001, Klett-Cotta
Hardcover in German - 6. Auflage
Cover of: King Leopold's ghost
King Leopold's ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa
1999, Houghton Mifflin
in English - 1st Mariner Books ed.
Cover of: King Leopold's ghost
King Leopold's ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa
1998, Houghton Mifflin
in English
Cover of: King Leopold's ghost
King Leopold's ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa
1998, Houghton Mifflin
in English
Cover of: KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST
KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST
Publisher unknown
in English
Cover of: King Leopold's ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa

Add another edition?

Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 338-350) and index.

Published in
Boston

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
967.51/022
Library of Congress
DT655 .H63 1999, DT655, DT655 .H63 1999eb, DT655 .H63 1998

The Physical Object

Pagination
366 p. :
Number of pages
366

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL3320007M
ISBN 10
0618001905
LCCN
2004271848, 98016813
OCLC/WorldCat
759834634, 166882328, 39042794, 42769595
Library Thing
22040
Goodreads
347610

Work Description

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West.

Links outside Open Library

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
September 12, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 14, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 19, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 29, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from Scriblio MARC record