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

This is a difficult book to review, because I am still thinking about it and probably will for some time. Of course I knew about King Leopold and his cruelty in the Congo, but nothing to this extent. The story Hochschild tells is one that left me consistently shocked, disgusted and deeply saddened and yet this is a book I would recommend to just about anyone. It strikes me again and again how cruel and vicious people can be to those they view as the "other", to those they view as someone less than themselves or even less than human based on their skin color, religious differences or any manner of means by which to conjure prejudice and hatred. We see it in the news every day, and though it feels overwhelming at the moment due to the nature of modern media, I venture to say it has always been this way, "us" pitted against "them" with the result of violence. That being said, I want to inject a note of hope here as well, just as Hochschild does in his book. There are always, too, those that recognize this injustice, who are willing to speak up and to risk their own safety and peace to fight for those who cannot. King Leopold's Ghost is a book I won't be quick to forget and it makes me all the more aware of how much I do not know about this world, and how much is not taught in schools and it is up to us to learn if we want to try to understand the world and humanity or a lack thereof. This is a bit of a ramble, but hopefully I am getting across how impactful this book is and how worth the read.

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