Click for full-size.
KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
by Hochschild, Adam
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Fine in fine dust jacket. Uncommon in the hardcover first edition, and especially so signed. /fine
- ISBN 10
- 0395759242
- ISBN 13
- 9780395759240
- Seller
-
Ione, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York & Boston:: Houghton Mifflin, , 1998.. SIGNED hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket. Uncommon in the hardcover first edition, and especially so signed. . First printing. At the turn of the century, when European political powers were carving up Africa. King Leopold II of Belgium carried out brutal acts in the territory surrounding the Congo River, which reduced the population of that area by ten million,while he still managed to cultivate a reputation as a humanitarian. In this book, the author recounts the horrific details of the monster verses the man, and tells of those who defied Leopold - rebel leaders, and a handful of missionaries and travelers. SIGNED on the title page. Maps, photographs, notes, bibliography and Index. 366 pp.
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!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Bookfever.com, IOBA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 88740
- Title
- KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
- Author
- Hochschild, Adam
- Format/Binding
- SIGNED hardcover first edition -
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine in fine dust jacket. Uncommon in the hardcover first edition, and especially so signed.
- Jacket Condition
- fine
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0395759242
- ISBN 13
- 9780395759240
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin,
- Place of Publication
- New York & Boston:
- Date Published
- 1998.
- Keywords
- Congo River, genocide, colonialism, belgians, African history
- Bookseller catalogs
- Africa: History - Biography - Politics;
Terms of Sale
Bookfever.com, IOBA
Free media mail shipping in US included; priority is $7.50 and international at cost. Books are packed carefully, shipped promptly with delivery confirmation and insurance at our expense. It is important for our customers to be totally satisfied with their purchase and guarantee all of our books to be as described. Want lists welcomed.
About the Seller
Bookfever.com, IOBA
Biblio member since 2003
Ione, California
About Bookfever.com, IOBA
Celebrating our 30th year in business. We started selling books in the CompuServe Book Collecting forum in 1993, a few years before there was any commercial Internet. In 1998 we relocated our main business from Sacramento to the Sierra foothills of Amador County.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Frequently asked questions
This Book’s Categories
Signed vs. Inscribed
Know what you are getting into when purchasing rare books, and learn the difference between signed books and inscribed books.
Bob Dylan - 2016 Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
From the first screech of his electric guitar upsetting musicians at a folk festival to his writing and paintings, Bob Dylan has risen to become a seminal force in American popular culture. In 2016, he was recognized by the Nobel Committee. Learn more about his creations...
