This book review summarizes King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. It details how King Leopold II of Belgium exploited and abused the Congo Free State for his own economic gain in the late 19th century, resulting in millions of deaths. The book provides extensive historical context and profiles many of the key figures involved on both sides. While relying heavily on sources that may not be completely objective, it sheds light on this little-known tragic period of colonialism and highlights the importance of standing up against immorality.

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King Leopold's Ghost Book Review
King Leopold's Ghost explains the legend of King Leopold II of Belgium and his abuse of a
dependency which he basically possessed, acknowledged variously as the Congo, the Belgian
Congo, as well Zaire. It is a natural and horrible story of man's capability for evil and the strange
demonstration of it. The king (King Leopold II) never set foot in his fiefdom. This was from the
support he got with the help of many willing subordinates to devastate a country.
Disappointingly, it is not the nastiest example of colonial misrule, but simply a representative
one. But one thing which is disgusting, is the number of people who were affected. Congo is a
known as huge territory, and also how modern these events were, even if it’s barely hundred
years ago.
Hochschild successfully describe Leopold's misrule, and equally extensively, describes those
that withstand to fight against it. It is believed that there were supermen in this sordid tale,
human rights activists at a time when the conception was still unknown one and when it was
taken for granted that the white man was advanced to the natives.
The book reactions are somehow surprising hen one views on how unfamiliar people are to

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the events portrayed herein. For that case, Hochschild acknowledges that he knew little about
Leopold's misrule as well the campaign against it. On the other hand near the end of the book, he
illustrates a Belgian diplomat who was also strange with these events. We always deliberated
that people knew. Apparently they didn't and they don't reason why the book sounds fundamental
in revealing what went on.
In his descriptions, Hochschild is helpful especially of the colourful persons involved, both the
excellent and the horrific. His analysis of the situation is solid; though essential superficial, it is a
short book, dealing with far flung and complex issues and incident. Hochschild packages the
story well and it makes a good though shocking to read. When one have a close overview of the
review, one notice that Hochschild bridges on occasion, but he does so in a sensible and
acceptable manner. The basic case of what happened is well presented, and the historical
characters do come alive.
One of the basic things that strike the reader is the fact that Hochschild has piled up an
unbelievable origin of resources for this book. Fashion an uneven approximate of the story by
using accessible resources, Hochschild has attempted to make King Leopold's Ghost as fact-
filled as possible as well the successful heartily. In this book of around 300 pages, is an abundant
channel of information on the subject. Whether it is people, places, deaths, or events, Hochschild
has investigated deep into the heart of the issue here and written a heavy, creative historical
portrayal.
In his explanation, Hochschild gives life to the people in Congo; this involved both the monsters
who always infected pain as well as suffering and those who worked hard to evict Leopold and
his horrible soldiers. This makes it possible to meet so many people with dissimilar scrutinies

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and it is difficult not to like the reformers who tried to end the whole suffering. Though
Hochschild got most of the information, he laments on his inability to find the voices of the
actual suffering of the Congo people, but he has helped them by giving them voices through his
well described descriptions.
The book is considerate, with Hochschild usually reminds the reader of the jeopardy the text
poses, for instance, in its confidence on sources that are logically not objective. A reminder of
the horrors of colonialism in any form, as well that of the consequences of power, corrupting is
not a modern things since its here just like everywhere. Enormously this seems to be an essential
reading for those who are not familiar with the story. It has been note that those who know all
about King Leopold II might find it a bit oversimplified, but it is still a decent read.
The presentation of the Congo story by Hochschild, both shed light on the past as well giving
imminent about the future. It is noted that for every wronged culture there has to be those who
are willing to risk their lives to get rid of it. On the other hand, if there is not, evil is free to
supremacy on. Hochschild teaches us a lesson that we can not stand absentmindedly and let
immorality prolong. On the other had, we learn that we should be sturdy enough to shield what
we know is precise.

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Work cited
Schulz, William F.. The phenomenon of torture: readings and commentary. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Print.