Skip to content

King Leopold's Ghost : A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

King Leopold's Ghost : A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

King Leopold's Ghost : A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

King Leopold's Ghost : A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

by Hochschild, Adam

  • New
  • Paperback
Condition
New
ISBN 10
0330492330
ISBN 13
9780330492331
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Kendal, Cumbria, United Kingdom
Item Price
£13.95
Or just £12.56 with a
Bibliophiles Club Membership
£11.50 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 14 to 30 days

More Shipping Options

Payment Methods Accepted

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • PayPal

About This Item

London, U.K.: Pan, 2002. 366pp; b/w pls. Notes. Bib'y. Index. Mint.. Soft Cover. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Synopsis

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.

Reviews

(Log in or Create an Account first!)

You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the specific copy you purchased!

Details

Bookseller
Savernake Books GB (GB)
Bookseller's Inventory #
010647
Title
King Leopold's Ghost : A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
Author
Hochschild, Adam
Format/Binding
Paperback
Book Condition
New New
ISBN 10
0330492330
ISBN 13
9780330492331
Publisher
Pan
Place of Publication
London, U.K.
Date Published
2002
Size
8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f

Terms of Sale

Savernake Books

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

About the Seller

Savernake Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2020
Kendal, Cumbria

About Savernake Books

Online sales only

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

New
A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...

This Book’s Categories

tracking-