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.
#2246857 in Books Three Rivers Press 2001-04-24 2001-04-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.01 x .58 x 5.17l; #File Name: 0609807633240 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. OvercookedBy Geoffrey NelliyattuIt wouldn't be "unreasonable" to claim that Castaneda came back from the dead; as this book does. It goes with the premises of Castaneda's teachings; doesn't it? Armando Torres; in his recent book Secret of the Plumed Serpent; for example; claims to know of seers who have been in touch with Castaneda in the "other world".Goodman's Castaneda doesn't sound like the Casaneda of the don Juan books; that's true; although we can give Goodman the benefit of doubt. Castaneda became the nagual after don Juan's passing; and Goodman makes him sound like a nagual; not like the fumbling; note-taking student of anthropology of Castaneda's own books. And this is how Castaneda sounds in other reports from the time he was alive and doing his talks and workshops. The fact that Castaneda's ideas aren't discussed isn't too much of an issue either; although that was what I was looking forward to.What I found truly unforgiveable about this book was Goodman's overwrought prose. As it turns out; Goodman teaches creative writing at a British university. Early on; we have Castaneda admonishing Goodman; "A tiny cup. A bitter liquid. A Peruvian shaman. Throw in an adjective and be done with it... Be a man... Life is in the details." And so; nearly every sentence; and the book as a whole; strains under the load of excess detail and retouching. The story interested me; but I had to fight my way through it; continually distracted by the style.On the positive side; there are some novel insights (or speculation) here: there's the bit about Jesus which opens the book (excerpted on the book's product page). There's something about the God(s) of Abraham; Moses; Mohammed; etc.; being really the spirits of the mountains where those prophets received their revelations (which I guess is the subject of another of Goodman's books; On Sacred Mountains). And there's something about the paleo-; meso-; and neo-cortex (reptile; animal; and human brain); which was thought-provoking.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Catch the AbstractsBy Gwen23This story remains true to the sorcerer stories which Carlos Castaneda shared with us. We can get caught in what is presented by physical-world occurrences or we can see past those presentations and endeavor to grasp the concept behind them. In this story; Carlos; himself; speaks to the abstracts which should have been our focus all along. Many thanks to the author for enduring the breakdown of the social self in order to see the magical self and bring this book to the world; too.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy Dennis F.Good read
