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King Leopold's Ghost
2 recommendations

King Leopold's Ghost

A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

by Adam Hochschild

Recommended by Sam Freedman and Maryn McKenna

Recommended by Sam Freedman and Maryn McKenna

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Should I read this?

Recommended by 2 sources and appears in African History, History, and Nonfiction.

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 millionall the while shrewdly c...

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Why recommended

Recommended by 2 sources and appears in African History, History, and Nonfiction.

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S

Sam Freedman

@kenradical Probably the book I recommend the most (King Leopold's Ghost). | @rdhduke @moorehn Recommended reading: King Leopold?s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. Came out maybe 20 years ago, but was a bestseller in its time, all about atrocities what was the colonized Belgian Congo. | @rdhduke @moorehn Recommended reading: King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. Came out maybe 20 years ago, but was a bestseller in its time, all about atrocities what was the colonized Belgian Congo.
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Appears In

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Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.

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King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost

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