title: King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
author:  Adam Hochschild 
description: King Leopold of Belgium, writes historian Adam Hochschild in this grim history, did not much care for his native land or his subjects, all of which he dismissed as "small country, small people." Even so, he searched the globe to find a colony for Belgium, frantic that the scramble of other European powers for overseas dominions in Africa and Asia would leave nothing for himself or his people. When he eventually found a suitable location in what would become the Belgian Congo, later known as Zaire and now simply as Congo, Leopold set about establishing a rule of terror that would culminate in the deaths of 4 to 8 million indigenous people, "a death toll," Hochschild writes, "of Holocaust dimensions." Those who survived went to work mining ore or harvesting rubber, yielding a fortune for the Belgian king, who salted away billions of dollars in hidden bank accounts throughout the world. Hochschild's fine book of historical inquiry, which draws heavily on eyewitness accounts of the colonialists' savagery, brings this little-studied episode in European and African history into new light. <i>--Gregory McNamee</i>
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  King Leopold's Ghost
  
  > > A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
  
  Adam Hochschild
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  A MARINER BOOK  
  Houghton Mifflin Company  
  
  
  BOSTON NEW YORK
  
  * * *
  
  > FOR  
  >
  
  
  DAVID HUNTER  
  (1916–2000)
  
  
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   FIRST MARINER BOOKS EDITION 1999  
  Copyright © 1998 by Adam Hochschild  
  All rights reserved
  
  
  
   For information about permission to reproduce selections from  
  this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,  
  215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
  
  
  
   Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  
  Hochschild, Adam.  
  King Leopold's ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in  
  colonial Africa / Adam Hochschild.  
  p. cm.  
  Includes bibliographical references and index.  
  
  
  ISBN-13: 978-0-395-75924-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-618-00190-3 (pbk.)  
  
  
  ISBN-10: 0-395-75924-2 ISBN-10: 0-618-00190-5 (pbk.)
  
  1\. Congo (Democratic Republic)—Politics and government  
  —1885–1908. 2. Congo (Democratic Republic)—Politics and  
  g