... a superb synoptic history of European misdemeanor in central Africa ... Hochschild's sketches of these three individuals are vivid, and his depiction of what they and many others were confronting is masterly. It shows, above all, that during Leopold's rule in Africa from 1885 to 1908, and in the years on either side of it, the peoples of the Congo River Basin suffered, in Hochschild's words, 'a death toll of Holocaust dimensions.' This is not said lightly ... Hochschild is right to think of this story as a template of modernity, not only in terms of Leopold's public-relations skills but also in terms of the great distance between the violence unfolding in the Congo and its instigators in Europe. Hochschild puts this bluntly, without oversimplifying ... He also argues, convincingly, that the story of the Congo was 'the first major international atrocity scandal in the age of the telegraph and the camera.'

... an absorbing and horrifying account of the traffic in human misery that went on in Leopold's so-called Congo Free State, and of the efforts of a handful of heroic crusaders to bring the atrocities to light. Among other things, it stands as a reminder of how quickly enormities can be forgotten ... Hochschild's book is not simply a recital of horrors, though. It also tells the story of a few people who waged what can be seen in retrospect as the world's first human-rights campaign ... Hochschild's gripping narrative, as dense as a novel and laden with subplots, shows among many other things the roots of the chaos and bloodshed ravaging the Congo today.

Adam Hochschild has taken most of the material for his new book from published sources; but about that I have no inclination to complain. Far from it. The findings of specialist historians have constantly to be ‘translated’ for the benefit of general readers, and Hochschild has done a valuable job in combining a biography of Leopold with a coherent, comprehensible account of how he realised his dream of a vast and ultimately profitable empire in the middle of Africa ... Unfortunately the book has faults which run almost as deep as its merits. Hochschild’s naive zeal for cliché is accompanied by lunges into a general metaphoric confusion ... He rebukes the Victorians for their overweening contempt for African society and culture, but it never occurs to him that his attitude to the Victorians might be tainted by an analogous philistinism and incomprehension. He refers slightingly to ‘European maps’ of the period which showed the interior of Africa as ‘blank’ – as if there were African maps or Moghul maps or Chinese maps which did any better ... Newton said that he saw as far as he did because he stood on the shoulders of giants. Here we have the spectacle of someone standing on the shoulders of giants and kicking them for their pains.

Although much of the material in King Leopold's Ghost is secondhand, Hochschild has stitched it together into a vivid, novelistic narrative that makes the reader acutely aware of the magnitude of the horror perpetrated by King Leopold and his minions. It is a book that situates Leopold's crimes in a wider context of European and African history while at the same time underscoring the peculiarly modern nature of his efforts to exert 'spin control over his actions. As depicted by Hochschild, the people in Ghost emerge as larger-than-life figures, the sort of characters who might easily populate a Victorian melodrama were it not for the tragic and very real consequences of their actions ... Hochschild writes about these horrifying events with tightly controlled anger, and he brings equal passion to his account of the small band of protesters who orchestrated resistance to Leopold's rule ... With this book, Hochschild, like other historians before him, ensures that King Leopold has not gotten away with his efforts to erase the memory of his brutal acts.

Hochschild effectively portrays Leopold's misrule, and, equally significantly, describes those that managed to campaign against it ... Hochschild is effective in his descriptions, especially of the colourful individuals involved, both the good and the bad. His analysis of the situation is solid, though necessarily superficial (it is a short book, dealing with far flung and complex issues and occurrences). Hochschild packages the story well, and it makes a good -- though shocking -- read. Hochschild simplifies on occasion, but he does so in a reasonable and acceptable manner. The basic case of what happened is well presented, and the historical characters do come alive ... a thoughtful book, with Hochschild generally reminding the reader of the dangers the text poses, e.g. in its reliance on sources that are naturally not objective. A reminder of the horrors of colonialism in any form, and of the consequences of power (corrupting, here as everywhere, absolutely), this is required reading for anyone not familiar with the story.

... astonishing ... Adam Hochschild writes a compelling narrative in lucid prose, one that chronicles a conveniently forgotten atrocity that stains the pages of world history.

... superb, engrossing ... [a] highly personal, even gossipy narrative ... draws provocative parallels between Leopold's predatory one-man rule and the strongarm tactics of Mobuto Sese Seko, who ruled the successor state of Zaire. Most of all it is a story of the bestiality of one challenged by the heroism of many in an increasingly democratic world.

If Hochschild depicts Leopold not as a Hitleresque madman but as a liberal bogeyman ready to sacrifice all for the bottom line, he profiles the monarch’s opponents in all their complicated humanity. A searing history of evil and the heroes who exposed it.