Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

20 reviews

mondovertigo's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Racism, Colonisation, Child death, Slavery, and Genocide

Moderate: Cannibalism, Animal death, War, and Animal cruelty

common_household_mom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Slavery, Violence, Genocide, and Racism

thunderplunder's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Slavery

the_tridentarii's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Colonisation, and Genocide

Moderate: Homophobia

gnome_tomes's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, War, Body horror, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Genocide, Child death, Colonisation, Police brutality, Torture, Murder, and Sexual violence

alexijai98's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, Slavery, War, Colonisation, Confinement, Racism, Blood, Genocide, and Torture

demonxore's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

3.5

This book was a good introduction to the atrocities of colonial Congo, but I feel like it is incomplete with regard to how historical events set the stage for perpetuated strife in the region. The ending feels rushed and loosely strung together. Hopefully there is another book out there that picks up where this leaves off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Child death, Death, Police brutality, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Racism, and Racial slurs

kvitlin's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Racism, Torture, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Genocide, Murder, and Police brutality

Moderate: Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Cannibalism

samants's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.75

I was assigned to read this in high school, but skipped the assignment completely. I'm really glad I finally took the time to go back and read this -- it's a harrowing read, but a necessary one if you want to better understand how colonialism destroys cultures and lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Sexual violence, Slavery, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Child death, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

_cararichardson's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I think this has been one of my favorite nonfiction reads. It definitely deserves the hype. Hochschild doesn’t mince any words and he admits any shortcomings his narrative has. The psychology of the people in this book is well explored, which I found fascinating. It’s an excellent and harrowing account of human nature and how time and time again we have repeated history while simultaneously rewriting it to be better than it was. What particularly struck me is that hindsight is 20/20; what we view as revolutionary or polarizing today will likely be considered the just point of view in the future. Revolutionaries like Morel or Casement are often not recognized until after death. Of course, I wish we had access to the perspective of Africans, but as Hochschild repeatedly reminds us, we don’t typically keep good records of the oppressed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Rape and Slavery