I fell in love with this book's well-written and passionate articles a year ago and decided to teach it in my second-semester English composition class. My students, working-class youngsters from New York State, found it their favorite: it taught them about style in writing without being too abstract or introspective. They had energetic discussions about the issues Hochschild raises and the people he portrays: "Fishhooks and Chickens" led to some strong opinions on U.S. foreign policy, "Summer of Violence" prompted them to discuss their own civil-rights heroes, and the piece on ex-racist Floyd Cochran elicited opinions on reform and forgiveness. And their own writing showed that they learned a great deal from Hochschild's stylistic grace. This book will be a great document of its times for many, many years.

I read this book in 1988 for an autobiography class, and reread it about once a year. It is the only book that has ever brought me to tears. Anyone with a parent who kept their relationships with their children strictly formal will identify with this book.

To the praise delivered to this book by more knowledgable students of the subject I can only add my appreciation for the absorbing way in which the story is told. It is beautifully written without artifice in an engaging and accessible prose style. It is also one of the few narratives of its nature that I've read which -- while it does not sugar-coat or gloss over horror in any sense -- left me more refreshed and hopeful than completely depressed and hopeless at the end of the book. Beautifully done and honestly related.

This book is the most daunting first hand account of the Gulag that I have read. Voices from the Gulag and Through the Whirlwind are also well-written accounts. Man is Wolf caputures the brutal experience with power and eloquence. From a literary standpoint it is a simple read but from a human perspective it is devastating. I had to stop reading on anumber of occasions to keep from being in enveloped by the horror of the book. This book will change your perspective on human nature, WWII and Eastern Europe.

This book is devastating in its depictions of the gulag's horrors, the bizarre and fascinating societal elements of the gulag, and the courage of its survivors. Bardach endured hell and then converted his experiences into a work worthy of deep contemplation. Although I read his account about a year ago, certain passages are still extraordinarily vivid in my mind -- an effect that few books can deliver. Bardach's memoir compelled me to read more gulag literature. I rank his remarkable contribution ahead of Ginzburg's Journey Into the Whirlwind and behind only Varlam Shalamov's amazing Kolyma Tales.

Hochschild is obviously a talented writer, and he does a great job of tackling a very difficult subject. However, often as he was drawing me in, he would throw in an anti-American non-sequitor, like comparing the people in the Gulag to the homeless in America. Huh? I'm not without compassion, but that is comparing one man's cut finger to another man's cut from the guillotine. Hochschild would be well served to leave his alternative agenda out of this book and focus on the subject at hand. The victims of the Gulag deserve nothing less.

However, if you can ignore these occasional comments which are out of place and inappropriate, The Unquiet Ghost is a solid effort which worth reading.

Several reviews of this book have splendid remarks and thoroughly profound analyses. But, is the subject of this book, the despotic Joseph Stalin and what is remembered about him, really reaching out to its readers?

This book can abruptly remind us of the generalities of life all over the world (i.e. psychological and physical abuse) when it comes to the terror of Stalin. The life and people around him he was ceaselessly suspect of doesn't necessarily mean it, his terrror, could never happen again, even on the smallest scale. Terror cannot be quantified. No, what Stalin did was and is as pervasive as any cult of personality.

This book decidely opens the door to many perceptions of what Stalin's terror meant, and sadly, still means all over the world. Ever carry your friend or your child on your shoulders as a joke or for fun? A friend of Stalin's did this to him and was later shot. But after this despot died, people mourned and when the new leadership came into being, the terror then manifested itself in the people. They basically reiterated towards the new order all that had held them in complete and utter fear of for more than a generation. This book documents this.

It's a book about how unstable people are who have been victims their whole lives, whether they knew it not, and how they come to realize life for others and themselves. It could be a book about life in general when we think of victims of any type of terror and suppression. Their messages to us could be of caution but on the other hand, of propagation, believing the terror to have some substantiation.

This book is a good read. But it requires a healthy open mind.

Every once in a while, you read a book that teaches you so much. This is such a book. I learned so much about Stalin and life in Russia under Stalin. Also you see how Stalin effects life in Russia to this day. This is a great book!

I am pleased that a book about a almost forgotten atrocity has rrecieved so much attention. The book is a eye opener and the Author avoids snowing the reader with acres of discriptions of atrocities. In fact the book is mainly about the establishment of the "Congo Free State" and the fight against King Leopold's rule. I myself have read a fair bit about, (what little there is), this horror. I am pleased that this book is available but it is not a "Scholarly" text it is more of a Introduction. Certainly considering that the king still has defenders this book is necessary. Very thoughtfully the author writes at lenghth about Jules Marchal, the author of a 4 volume history of King Leopold and the Congo. Unfortunatly it is only available in French. Those volumes provide the Scholarly underpining for inditing King Leopold. The book does have certain scholarly features like footnotes and a extensive bibliography but over all it is "popular history" with "novelistic" touches which may result in some people not taking it seriously.

The author also makes comparison with both German and French Colonialism. Specifically the brutal French rule of Equitorial Africa and the German rule of Namibia. Were massive atrocities also took place. The British + American's also get a dishonerable mention. I can recomend the book "Exterminate the Brutes" for the connection between the early conquest + exploitation of Africa and this centuries episodes of mass murder.

This book should be taken has a starting point in the investigation not the end.

If you only read one book on the Belgian Congo, it might as well be this one. If, on the other hand, you are well trained in the study of history, then I suggest you supplement your reading list.

Hochschild's book is not a bad effort but it is clear that scholarly publishing is a new arena for this doubtlessly talented writer. The author is apparently unfamiliar with footnotes. He is given to making statements like "Leopold thought to himself," and trying to explain what certain emotion a character might have been feeling. All of that makes for fun reading but it is far from historical. At times, the author allows himself to sound propagandistic, even ideological.

But, giving credit where it is due, Hochschild does make a strong presentation of the many intricate levels of diplomacy that went into King Leopold II's enormous land grab. He also draws on diverse sources to paint a well rounded picture of Belgian activities. The events of this period are not known to most and hence this book is a good starting off point for a novice.

If you are not a novice, or an amateur history buff, than this book might be a bit painful. Hochschild continually makes unfair comparisons between the late Victorian era Belgians and the Nazis as a cheap rhetorical tool. He makes countless, unnecessary references to Joseph Conrad's Congo novella. The author also jumps around in his subject matter in the manner of a novelist.

Overall, I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars were it possible. I would suggest this work to anyone who is just beginning to explore the richness of African history. It is not for the scholarly crowd who will cringe at at the author's unconventional style. But, since there aren't too many of them out there, that will not be an issue for most readers. So, if you DO NOT have a PhD in African history, I firmly suggest you read this book.

--Patrick Klocek

Most readers encountered Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" in English Lit 101. I was taught that "Heart of Darkness" was a metaphorical journey into the darkest heart of man rather than a realistic novel. Reading "King Leopold's Ghost" I realized that "Heart of Darkness" has a basis in cold, hard fact -- the brutal regime of King Leopold of Belgium in the Congo from about 1890 to 1910.

It is often said nowadays that Africa was better off when it was ruled by the European colonial powers. Hochschild's book will make you question that statement as he piles on example after example of Belgian brutality in the Congo. Certainly, Africans were killing other Africans and an Arab-operated slave trade existed before the arrival of the Europeans -- but the "civilizing mission" of the Europeans is revealed as mostly a scramble for the almighty franc. Hochschild speculates that ten million people -- half the population -- of the Congo might have died of violence, disease, and mistreatment during King Leopold's rule. The apt subtitle of the book is "A story of greed, terror, and heroism is colonial Africa."

The author finds several possible prototypes for Conrad's fictional character, Kurtz, the colonial official who ornamented the fenceposts around his house with severed human heads. As Conrad said "Heart of Darkness is experience...pushed a little (and only very little) beyond the facts of the case." The heroes of "King Leopold's Ghost" are the human rights advocates and Protestant missionaries -- mostly British and American -- who brought the brutalities of the Belgian rule to light.

The last chapter, "The Great Forgetting" is one of the most interesting. The author details the efforts of the Belgians and other Europeans to forget, deny, and cover up the records of their abuses in Africa. "King Leopold's Ghost" is a hard-hitting book that tells a story too little known about the seamier side of imperialism.

I read this book while I was visiting South Africa and I would encourage it for anyone who is interested in an overview of life under apartheid. It was published just before apartheid ended, so the reader must look to other sources for a post apartheid look at South Africa, but I found this book to be well written, insightful, and interesting. South Africa is a very complex culture and that complexity is not always portrayed in American media. Hochschild lived in South Africa and his love for the people is evident in this work.