African History Books

Out of all the autobiographies I've read of prominent men and women, and particularly those wih political ambition and desire for high office, I don't think I've ever read anything as frank and straightforward as this book of Obama's. Writing about oneself is difficult for most people most of the time, and here, describing one's childhood (or bi-racial childhood as Americans often say) involves displaying whatever conclusions you've reached as you assenbked your emotional and intellectual self, in different parts of this country, and in Indonesia, and that must surely have been profoundly difficult.

Considering the high level of education Obama's achieved, that the book is written well should be no surprise. But what is so amazing about all this is that currently the election campaign of Obama's Republican opponent is attempting to encourage the voting public that there is an impenetrable veil of mystery surrounding candidate Obama; mystery about his morals, his political affiliations, his religious obligations.. It seems obvious to me that anybody in this country or this world could find the man revealed with maximum clarity simply by reading this exceptional book. The latest Republican hocus-pocus is nonsense. It depends on the shameful racist tradition that says no white person can ever accept any level of intimacy -- certainly not an equitable one -- with any person of color, and that understanding would be a breach of caste.

We will be reading this splendid book for many years, both as adults and as students and children. It will become a young people's library classic.

This amazingly frank memoir bares the soul of a confused and deprived, then ambitious and determined, man of his times. The multi-racial, multi-cultural, migratory experience of Barack Obama both reflects and defines the post-modern secular society that the United States has become in the 21st century. This masterfully told tale transcends the senator's own life to illustrate the trials and pain of the racial divide that persist both here and abroad. It portrays the chronically sad consequences of tribal and colonial history for Africans, Europeans and Americans.

By turns troubling yet hopeful, morose yet humourous, depressing yet inspiring, this book probes your emotions and challenges your worldview. Obama weaves an incredible tapestry of characters, places and moods with language more befitting a poet than a politician. His look inside himself is as deep and penetrating as his thoughts about the human condition. Although not everyone will agree with his conclusions, no one can deny his convictions.

This is the most compelling story that really resonates with me. Barak Obama's life connects with a little bit of everyone no matter your race or background. In his book, Barak Obama articulates the near and distant relationships specifically with his grandparents and estranged parents, which ultimately shaped his character to what it is now; open, inclusive and inspirational. After reading this book, I knew that this was no ordinary man. If an ordinary man he is certainly destined for extraordinary things. He is genuine and open about his past even the troubling part he tells about his youth. You Must Read! I was spell bound, once you start reading you won't stop until finished. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

ok first off I am not in favor for Obama's political ideals, lets just get that out of the way now. This Book was Sooo Boring. I wanted to know more of the man, and what better way the by his own words. I think I found out more stuff about him before he was alive. He talks about the great life of his family and the web of emotions connected to the race differance between his father and the mothers side. He also goes on about the "true love" connection of his father and mother ...BEFORE HE WAS CONCIEVED... sorry but if I was to write a book of my own life and the connection I had with my father, I'd might start with my earliest memory. He talks of stroking of hands and gazing of eyes like he was there. People might call this filler and/or juicing the story up, I call it packing a troubled past up with white lies to make it look presentable.
Saying that I find much of his ideals and "black" reactionary remarks in the book racist and selling out the "we can do it" idea to a self-victimizing hate speech.

This is typical shameless garbage that the criminal elite use to promote themselves and their underlings. And don't be ridiculous and think that slick BHO even wrote this book. None of our phoney, criminal, deviant, controlled "leaders" ever write any of the shameless books that are attributed to them. Why do we continue to be so naive and foolish? Why do we continue to think that we live in any sort of democracy?

What can be said for sure about BHO is that he is an attractive man who can spew forth what is written for him in an eloquent manner. Oh, and he has nice white teeth. That's it folks, and I could care less what Oprah and all those little Hollywood turds gush about him, because BHO is a manufactured cut-out of a candidate who will be completely controlled by all the usual suspects. But, don't think just anyone could do what BHO does. He has a small army of helpers creating his image, dressing him, booking teeth whitening appointments, and white washing his past - especially on the internet. He has obviously had quite a bit of training in public speaking, but not just the "normal" type that you and I might sign up for. No, no. What he's been well trained in (as was Clinton, Reagan, and many others) is neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and subtle hypnotic/subliminal speech patterns. Of course it also helps a great deal that everywhere he speaks is "specially wired" for sound, which affects the audience in ways they probably couldn't comprehend or believe. This type of frequency manipulation of brain waves and body rhythms has been perfected for well over 2 decades. But, that's getting off topic...

In regards to this book, ... *** news flash *** After having spent about 5 minutes writing the above, I pushed "publish review" to get the process started and went for about a 3 minute bathroom break and then returned to finish writing, and when I returned there was already 3 "not helpful" votes registered for this review in that very, very short time frame. And you say you don't believe that a small army of "trolls" patrol the internet trying to misdirect and neutralize on behalf of the criminal elite??!!

Anyways, the amount of misdirection, inconsistency, undocumented statements / claims, and total shameless introspective pyscho mish-mash in this book is gut wrenching (in a bad way). But for a sane person searching for the truth, here are some questions to ponder: where was his father born in reality? how many wives / offspring did he have? as a "poor goat farming" family, how did he get the expensive initial education that he did? what are the connections to the Ford Foundation and the Rockefellers? where was BHO's mother born and why is there no records for the first 10 years of her life? if she was schooled in Lebanon initially, why? why can't the BHO Team produce a birth certificate from the State of Hawaii if he was born there? why did the BHO Team finally release a "document of live birth" that was shown to be a forgery? where was BHO born then? why was BHO's "maternal grandfather" working for the Rockefellers? why is there essentially no evidence that BHO went to Columbia University and why does he refuse to release transcipts in order to prove it? what is the connection of Indonesia to BHO really? And these are just a few questions a great researcher by the name of Don Nicoloff brings up in his writing for the Idaho Observer.

Here's my personal take: BHO

Helene Cooper has given those of us who've never been to Africa a brilliant account of what happened there, despite all the good will of the founders. Their dilemma is not unlike that of the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the story should make us hesitate to colonize people on land that is not ours.

The jacket cover read really well but the writing was rather dry. I didn't care for the dialog going back and forth. It is a great story not written that well.

This tender memoir shows us a side of society that exists in many African countries but is seldom portrayed--the upper middle class. I found it refreshing to read about the lives of Africans of means who aren't embezzlers and tin-pot dictators or blood-crazed war lords bent on carving out a kingdom from the flesh of their victims. Helene Cooper's family certainly had its share of flawed characters, but their lifestyle wasn't vastly different from Americans in similar economic circumstances.
Their fates, of course, were very different and her handling of the impact of the turmoil in Liberia on her family gives the book some serious drama.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

This is one of the best memoirs I've ever read. It presents a "new" "African American" experience that we need to hear more about. Like Obama, Cooper is an African American who arrived at that "label" in a unique way. Her book highlights yet another path and, boy, am I glad she wrote about it. Thank you Helene. When's your next book coming? I'll be waiting.

Helene Cooper's memoir of growing up in Liberia is one of those books that you just can't put down. I was pretty groggy there for a few days after reading late into the night!

Because I grew up in the U.S. at the same time as the author, I was captivated by the stories of her girlhood. Nancy Drew, green eye shadow, Barry White, velvet upholstery... even singing Blessed Assurance endlessly. It all sounds so familiar, and yet, that's where the similarity ends. Guns and war, soldiers and strongmen, rapes and executions. We who grew up in the relative safety of the U.S. in the latter part of the twentieth century can barely form mental images of the scenes she describes.

The professional reviews of this book say its tone is flat. I don't agree. I like the factual, unsentimental tone of the book. The author is reporting her life, in all its glory and its ugliness. If she maintains a certain reserve, or a little distance, for her sanity's sake, she sure has the right. God bless her just for surviving.

When the book ended, I was left with the question of whether Ms. Cooper ever went back to Liberia after her visit to find her sister Eunice. I looked up her recent bylines in the New York Times and enjoyed reading her articles. An epilogue about her continuing relationship with the country would have been a welcome addition to the book.

If I could rate separately for editing, I would. Ms. Cooper's editors failed her. In another edition of the book, I would hope they would fix such silly errors as using "who's" instead of "whose" and spell names consistently (Mommee/Mommy). In many places, information is repeated; in two successive paragraphs, for example, the family cook is described as grumpy and irascible. It detracts from the book in a regrettable way.

But not to end this review on a grumpy and irascible note. I loved this book and I suggest you read it along with Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name: A Novel, which is based on historical events and tells the story of a woman who was enslaved in the South but who returns with the colony of African-Americans who founded Sierra Leone after the Revolutionary War. It provides another colorful look at this part of the world.

While I appreciate author Gordon-Reed's prodigious research on the Hemings family of Monticello, she interjects too much of her personal opinions into her book. A more succinct book, roughly half the size of this one, would have been better.

Gordon-Reed's major failing is her insistence on imposing the modern racial-ethnic identity "African American" on the Hemings family. The European ancestry of the Hemings family is essential to understanding their situation. They had very little African ancestry and no African culture. They were, as Frank W. Sweet and Lawrence R. Tenzer have shown, essentially "white slaves." Moreover, the children of Sally Hemings were legally white (as opposed to "passing for white") once manumitted. As Jefferson himself wrote:

"Our canon considers two crosses with the pure white, and a third with any degree of mixture, however small, as clearing the issue of the Negro blood. But observe, that this does not reestablish freedom, which depends on the condition of the mother, the principle of the civil law, partus sequitur ventrem being adopted here."

I would also point out that only the white descendants of Sally Hemings (via her son Eston Hemings Jefferson) have passed a DNA test showing that they are descended from the Jefferson line. None of the black-identified Hemings descendants (via Madison Hemings) have passed a DNA test.

Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise And Triumph of the One-drop Rule

The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue

"Passing" for Who You Really Are: Essays in Support of Multiracial Whiteness

I was disappointed. Having researched and written a book (Anatomy of a Scandal: Thomas Jefferson and the SALLY Story, 2002, White Mane Publishing Co.) on the history of the Jefferson political scandal, I anticipated much new material. Ms. Gordon-Reed does not break new ground, but plows and replows the fields of Race, Class and Sex for 662 pages. Historical characters whom I got to know look unfamiliar and the author is alternately impatient with the blacks and furious with the whites. Ironically slaves become political game pieces subject to the author's moves as well as their masters'. The reader is left weary.

After reading this book I have objections with the way
Gorden-Reed uses the foregone conclusion that Thomas Jefferson fathered the last 4 children of "Sally Heming".
The "DNA" test did not prove that Thomas Jefferson" fathered these children only that a "Jefferson family member " may have fathered these children. I think the "Carr" nephews fathered these children.
If this book is read by "School " children they will beleive because it is on paper that it is true. I beleive we have too many things in our school books that are "not" true now with out adding to it. Gorden-Reed refers through out the book that these are Thomas Jeffersons "sons" 1, 2, and 3. I have a extensive library
on Thomas Jefferson and object to this being called "a history book".
Thanks, Bruce Borden

Following on the heels of several other studies of black families from the time of the Civil War, The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty and the black upper class, Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class this book examines the story of the Hemings family and their connections to the Jefferson family. It is entirely intertwined with Monticello, Jefferson's home and estate. This is a very interesting story of a 'vanished world', the southern aristocracy and their sexual liasons with their slaves, a story often not told but one that is carved on the faces of their descendants. It is a story revealed, to a small degree, in Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a Cultural History). A very nice book, for anyone interested in the period, Jefferson or African-American history this will dazzle and surprise. Excellently researched, a true bit of investigative reporting.

Seth J. Frantzman

Wonderful historical work on the most famous family of enslaved people, the Hemingses. Read it to get an important insight into a much-neglected area of American historiography.

In Left to Tell Imaculee Ilibagiza, a Rwandan holocaust survivor, recounts her story and attributes her survival to her strong faith in God. Most western Christian readers of this story are swept away in the miraculous aspects of Imaculee's nearly 100 days of survival, most of which were in a tiny bathroom in a Protestant pastor's house. What is overlooked is her very African emphasis on sacred objects for protection and an image of God which is more shaman than one who loves all humanity and grieves when we humans depart from his commandment to "Love on another." The imagine of her father with his rosary in one hand and his spear in the other is particularly striking. Thus, almost all Hutus in this story are depicted as untrustworthy or completely evil. Imaculee even portrays the pastor who at great risk to himself and his family saved her as jealous of her father and heartless when he cannot keep her brothers. Similarly, as she focuses on her survival as a proof of the power of faith, she fails to ask why so many many others who were likely just as faithful were killed. Imaculee does state that this is only her story and not an attempt to explain the causes of the Rwandan genocide, but certainly as a young university student she must have known more about the sources of the seething tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis. Imaculee gives her explanation of why she was left to tell the story of the 1994 genocide, but neglects to ask why 800,000 others, many of whom were Hutu, were not.

It is unbelievable that people could kill so many people in such a gruesome fashion. It is even more unbelievable that Immaculee could forgive those killers. This book is about more than just the genocide, it is about the power and absolute necessity of forgiveness. Ultimately, the only one Immaculee could really escape the genocide was through forgiveness. Wonderful book.

Amazing story. I strongly suggest everyone to read the story, it's profound and a real eye opener. As an American, the majority of us have no idea what it's like to be put into poverty and suffering as she and millions like her have experienced.

I love stories that tell how God works in the lives of His people. This story is among the best I've ever read.

Left to Tell is a powerful story of one womens tragedies and survival experienced during the Genocide in Rwanda. This book brought tears and joy to my heart; it inspired me to know that through any horrible and life threatening experience a belief and faith in God will transcend all atrocities man will commit. It is also about how forgiveness can calm and soothe the soul so life can move on with peace in your heart.

I could not put this book down. After I finished I went on to read about white slavery just so that I had a well rounded idea of what was going on during this time. The only small complaint I have is that when authors talk about chattel slavery they all tend to group African Americans together as in "when African Americans got the right to vote" etc. This needs to be more specific if we are ever to really have a grasp of that history. African American men got the "right to vote" in 1850, Women as a group in 1920. I had to pen in "men" and "male" throughout my copy of this book for the next reader to remember white/black male/female all have specific histories in this country. But other than that, I could not put it down.

Every time I order books directly from Amazon it arrives within three days, and I love that.

Thanks Amazon!

Karyn

Interesting and very informational. As the holy scriptures states, "There is nothing new under the sun". What went on then continues to this very day. So-called African Americans have NEVER been Free!
This is a book that every A.M. should read, especially young males. The revolving prison doors mainly houses them!

I am pleased that the book came in a reasonable amount of time.

All the abuses discussed in this book are accurate, and the author does a fine job in bringing them to life. But the books leaves the reader with the impression that all black workers in the South were virtual slaves, who were forced to stay with the same employer year after year. This is simply not true. Many African Americans switched jobs year after year, to the frustration of planters. Others migrated, sometimes alone, sometimes en masse (e.g., the Kansas Exodus, the Edgefield Exodus) to other parts of the South. Labor agent Peg-Leg Williams moved over 80,000 people from the Carolina southwest all by himself. And so on. The real history is bad enough, no need to exaggerate it. For the relevant sources, see the footnotes to David E. Bernstein, Only One Place of Redress ch. 1 (Duke U. Press 2001), which discusses one way planters tried to limit black mobility, through laws banning labor recruitment.

I think Nikki Grimes' middle name must be Lyric. There is poetry on every single page of this book. Poetry, and as the title says, Promise and Hope. Grimes, ever the artist in words, weaves her images with historical facts in presenting this biography of the man who may very well change the world, through the words of a mother explaining to her son just who this guy with the "mouthful" of a name and the people shouting.

From a strictly educational standpoint, this is a wonderful book for teaching metaphor, simile, and descriptive language. It's absolutely lush with images. The teachers in the school where I work as a librarian are already drooling over this one. Here are a couple of quotes to illustrate my point:

"His family stretched from Kansas to Kenya, his mama, white as whipped cream, his daddy, black as ink...Love is the bridge that held them all together."

"Honolulu looked like heaven. But even though the blue of the sea was sharp enough to slice the sun, and the sun warmed the sand between his toes, and the sand sparkled like diamonds, nothing could fill the hole in Barry's heart once his daddy went away."

Tough issues are handled here with grace and compassion, and so is the exotic childhood landscape in which Barack Obama was privileged to grow up, beauty and harshness together. Grimes presents these for young readers in such a way as to let them know that this boy went through both good times and hard times, and as he grew into a man, he learned from his life experiences and listened and watched and soaked in the voice of Hope, and later, prayerfully, the voice of God.

As I read, I was moved by the beauty of Grimes' language, but also by the beauty of the message here. The mother and son's dialog seemed tacked on at first, and distracted me from it, but as I read, I understood that Grimes had imbued the boy with the voice of the young reader, that he was asking the questions they would ask, and making the connections that many of them would make. Brilliant.

Some may call this over-the-top on the glorification of Obama, but I call it rich writing. It is engaging and I am looking forward to sharing this with our students. Besides, if ever there was a time we needed an over-the-top message of Hope, perseverence, and the breaking down of barriers, it's now, and most especially for this generation.

The art, well, much of it is just breathtaking. I wish I could share more of it here. It's a mix of textures and colors, torn images, paint, and lines, and it all blends together - a great reflection of the lyricism in Grimes' words.

I highly recommend this book. Love is indeed the bridge that holds us all together, after all. "Can we make America better? Can we work together as one?" Yes, we can.

Roxyanne Young
Editorial Director
SmartWriters.com

This is a beautifully written book about our next President! It's very moving and explains just how much he has touched the lives of many millions of people. YES WE CAN!

I'm a 2nd grade teacher. I went to Barnes and Noble tonight and one of my missions was to look at the picture books regarding the presidential candidates (I knew that there had to be a few by now) to read to my students during our daily read aloud times. I want to be able to present each of the candidates in a fair manner. While at the store I found this book.

The books is SO heavy-handed (I looked to see if it hadn't been written by, endorsed by, or if the profits weren't going directly to the DNC). Barack comes across as a Moses for our times. He is spoken to by "Hope", and later on it seems that Hope turns into the voice of God. God doesn't just stir his soul but recites sentences/a paragraph, and seems to anoint him a modern-day prophet. The child in the book even compares him to Joseph of the new testament. This is going WAY too far (unless of course we are to expect The Book of Barack to be added to the Bible any day now). Actually, the heavy-handed writing made me laugh as I rejected even the possibility of bringing it into the classroom.

I do, though, allow adult guest readers to bring in books of their choosing when they join us for read alouds. I started to wonder how I would handle the situation if someone brought in this book. My solution will be to apologize immensely and then mention, "Oooops, we were suppose to go to the art room for a special presentation. We'll have to reschedule this read aloud."

There is no way I could present this book to my students. I might as well read the Bible and replace major names with Barack.

PLEASE publishers! Give us DECENT books about the candidates.

(*A note to Barack (though I doubt he will be taking time to read my little review):
Do you endorse these books or comments that compare you to Biblical figures???? I think you would do your campaign well to tell people to start considering you to be a mere man. You aren't a rock star. You aren't a prophet. I think these comparisons might wear on people and lose you an election.)

YES, WE CAN. We can dream. YES, WE CAN. We can achieve those dreams. YES, WE CAN. We can change America. YES, WE CAN.

This story chronicles Obama's life as he leads up to running for President. The historical nature of the story is intriguing. They used to call him Barry until he embraced his father and his name Barack. As his mother taught him proper English, Godly virtues, and love of family his sense of adventure took hold. Education was his foothold and studying was his pastime. Barack felt the urgent need to help the community overcome the adversity and now he is making history...

The illustrations are absolutely breathtaking. The storyline seems to be historical correct and the important dates chronology provide validation. The story touches on several topics - divorce, family, values, education, and community involvement. The family tree, additional sources and bibliography prove the intense research used to write this book.

Deltareviewer
Reviewing for Real Page Turners

This is a moving beautifully written piece about Barack Obama. It is very well written and very moving. I am not a Barack Obama fan but I can't deny that this is a good book. It does map out the searching, religious story he has tried to communicate to the public. Whether or not it is truly an accurate portrait remains to be seen but I that doesn't detract from the book and its message. It's scary to try to live up to this kind of idealism.

first off i want to thank malcolm x for his thoughts on race after visiting mecca.he saw that persons of all races got together to worship and were colorblind.i will see this man in heaven he saw past racism in america to be a great christian!also i would like to give a big F to public schools in america for not teaching everything about slavery and who was involved,for example it wasn't until i went to college to major in history that i learned the truth about slavery.the white man didn't just go to africa with a big gun and round up black people as slaves,they established trade with the local tribes who traded goods with tribal leaders who had their own slaves as spoils of war and traded them with the white man as just another trade good so the tribes that traded were africans tradeing off other africans to the white's.try to find this in high school history or elementary school history,not likely.it is true that some white slave owners treated slaves horribly and i'm sure african tribes even treated some of their slaves horribly also.wrong is wrong no matter what your skin looks like!slavery is wrong!racism is wrong!!!!! ! ! "everyone" should be able to live free and should be able to worship freely and have pride in their people without being called racist! i'm guilty of being white, i love my race,does this make me a racist! no i don't think so. LOVE,RED

I read this book along time ago and still retain alot of what I learned from it. There is no beating around the bush in this from the beginning he tells of his life as it happened. He tells of an early career in crime to his time in prison and he does not attempt to sugarcoat anything. He does explain his reasoning for having done what he had done in his youth, but he does not claim to be innocent.
He did manage to find a better way to fight his enemies during his incarceration, and anyone who has ever seen any footage of Malcolm X will understand what I mean. The man was a very acticulate and confrontational speaker. He was the spark that ignited the engine of the civil rights movement in many respects. The civil rights movement began as far back as pre-civil war and was slow to develop with minor progress for each generation. Malcolm was the man brave enough to say enough and to make his voice heard over the many voices of the nation that tried to rise over him.
Here is a man that took it upon himself to correct a society that had become accepting of the crimes of their ancestors and simply ignored them. It is only a stonesthrow back in time if you think about it and yet it is painful to imagine people could be so cruel.
I recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it as it is an excellent book and is a document of the life of a man who managed to play a pivotal role in changing the way America viewed itself.

Despite the dispiriting revelation that this book was almost totally written by Alex Haley, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" remains one of my favorite books. Which is a little strange, since his well-known struggles with civil rights, the police, Black identity, and Islam have little or no relevance to my life. Sorry.

The part of this book that affects me most deeply is where Malcolm is in prison educating himself, studying on the floor of his cell in the dim night light. I can't think of another tale about the birth of an autodidact and the rewards of reading that is as uplifting and memorable as Malcolm's. I first read this book about twenty years ago, and that's the part that always sticks with me: the power of books to change your life, regardless of who you are or what you've done. And much of the rest sticks with me too, for example the poignant case of "West Indian Archie."

I would like to advise, however, that you buy this edition: Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics), rather than the Ballantine edition, as the binding on the latter has proven unreliable, to say the least. I have gone through three different copies of the Ballantine edition of Malcolm X and the binding has fallen apart on all three of them -- to the point where the covers have come completely off, even though I don't really mistreat books. It can't just be bad luck.

Malcolm X was said to have been a formidable debater, yet it's curious to me that none of his opponents ever made the obvious, unanswerable point: that whatever crimes and horrors the West can be charged with vis-à-vis the African slave trade, those of Islam have been even more extensive and blood-soaked. They go back a lot further, and continued a lot later. In fact, it was only two years previous to Malcolm's making his Hajj to Mecca (1964) that slavery was made illegal in Saudi Arabia!

Hence jettisoning Christianity and Western culture for the supposed moral high ground of Islam was, when you think about it, a dingy move on Malcolm's part. Yet it is, unfortunately, the entirety of his position.

But you'll find this book a cracking good read nonetheless.

An excellent unflinching book about Malcolm X read for my "Understanding Religious Traditions in Multicultural America" last spring. While at times unnerving to read due to its stark honesty, it was very illuminating. As a non-American, it really helped give me further insight into how powerful and tense race is of an issue in American culture. As someone born into a Muslim family, but is a closet agnostic, the perversions I felt Elijah Muhammad perpetuated made me severely uncomfortable anyway. Several parts of this book made me cry, or be wistful I could somehow have found peace in Islam as Malcolm X did.

A very good book.

Every American should read this literature. It discusses America's most obvious flaw. More importantly it demonstrates the power of transformation, tolerance of self and of others, cooperation and the importance of hope.

This is a brutal history of the colonization of the Belgian Congo beginning in the 1890's. Long after slavery was unilaterally condemned on the planet earth, we find that King Leopold and the tiny country of Belgium has managed to take ownership of a chunk of the African continent, claim it for its own and ransack its people and resources for his own benefit.

Belgium felt they were being left out of the colonial expansion of Europe into Africa and wanted their piece of the action. They found the Congo River area an ideal source of rubber and cheap labor; a perfect location to set up shop which they did with the help of vicious mercenaries and Belgian company men. The book goes into horrible detail about the methods the white colonialists and their hired African mercenaries used to extract these resources and the labor that made it so valuable.

How could this happen? Where was the rest of the world? Well, believe it or not the United States inadvertently helped Leopold. A senator Sanford from the state of Florida, on the floor of the house, recognized the Congo as a Belgian territory. This simple recognition of a countries imperialistic expansion left the door wide open for Leopold to continue his atrocities under the guise of a legitimate Belgian state. It took decades for the truth about this brutal state to be known.

The implications of this episode in history bear some resemblance to today's debate about the benefit of the US negotiating with known terrorist states like Iran and N Korea. If a super power comes to the table of negotiation with a rogue state, the rogue country wins recognition even when nothing is accomplished. Unless pre-conditions and terms are negotiated, which make the meeting of mutual benefit to both parties, these terrorist states need to be marginalized and shunned by society at large.

I would like to present a review of Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa" which depicts the ruthlessness and greed of King Leopold in his exploitation of the Congolese. Furthermore, it illustrates the horrors of the rubber trade which spanned nearly thirty years. The author narrates this account of African history particularly well. Showing us the psychological traits of each character involved in the plot to acquire the Congo, the author gives us insight into the psychological motives of this episode in Belgium's colonizing days. Leopold is an evil, political genius orchestrating a grand scheme to subtly take over the Congo. He manipulates people with ease and lies just as easily. As Belgium's King, he acquires loyal spies in every major European country informing him of that country's intentions and political moves. Furthermore, Hocschild chronicles how the Belgian army slaughtered the native Congolese in pursuit of rubber vines from the rain forest. Moreover, as a novel, "Leopold's Ghost" introduces each character individually tracing their roots from childhood and depicting their personality traits early in life and illustrates how personality traits shape people and their desires.

Although I teach High school history I've never been intersted in African history. I've taught slavery, Pre-european contact, and Egypt yet I've never studied or taught about imperialism in Africa. In preparation for teaching this period in a Modern World history class I've been reading about Africa. Wow - this book blew my mind. It presents all sides of the imperialism issue and doesn't make the Africans as innocent victims. Don't be confused this book pulls no punches everyone from the American government to the British, Belgium and the African leaders are shown to be complicit in the death of over 10 million Africans. Don't miss this one it will help you understand the problems Africa faces today.

This book was among the best I have read this year. I had no idea as to the atrocities committed in the Congo around the turn of the century until I picked up this book. While Hochschild goes into great lengths to expose King Leopold II and his horrible deeds, he still maintains great objectivity and examines WHY Leopold may have acted in the manner that he did. I would love for Hochschild to look more into Leopolds mistress Caroline. That is a book I would definetly pick up.

A very interesting book about a very evil person and a bad time in the world. Much like now in Africa.

Several times while reading I was brought to the point of tears, clutching the book to my chest and kept looking at the author's picture on the back of the book because I couldn't believe that someone so young could harness such brilliance. A true tour de force! Don't miss this one!

P.S. Anyone who criticizes the author's craftmanship is a nincompoop and deranged lunatic. Totally ignore them.

Fantastic book on RELATIONSHIPS during the Nigerian civil war. When we were kids my (Nigerian) father would tell us stories about the 60's in Nigeria as he was also a professor at Ibaden. However, as kids we were never really intrested in the past. When I read this book I WAS BLOWN AWAY at how a stranger (the author) had put into writing everything I had been told over the course of my childhood by my father. I felt like the author had substituted the names of the characters and had stolen my fathers stories. AMAZING. (I'm now 45) And I feel ashamed that I paid little attention then, because to me they were just storeis but they were not.

Two ebony-coloured Igbo (African) sisters, one outstandingly beautiful and the other thin but attractive, the former in love with an Igbo intellectual and the latter with a white Englishman,are the protagonists in this novel. The civil war between the enterprising christian Igbos and the conservative muslim Nigerians forms the flaming back-ground.When the British left India, dividing it into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, there was sectarian violence in which thousands were killed and millions uprooted,Hindus migrating from Pakistan to india and Muslims to Pakistan from India.But no novel has so far depicted that tragedy with the same force, sensitivity and timbre of immediacy (i.e., feeling of being present at the event) as this novel does with reference to the conflict in Nigeria.The description by the younger sister how the body of her servant stumbled a few steps after the head had been knocked off by a shrapnel,is disturbing but realistic.The novel also shows that the war coarsened people by narrating the incident where the house-boy, otherwise decent, joins in the rape of the bar-maid.When Western Nations divided up Africa for themselves, they did so without regard to ethnic homogeneity and when they left, the mixed populations in such territories had to find the necessary adjustments themselves. Adjustments were not easy to make and bloody conflicts resulted. This book is not only a good novel. It is also a balanced critique of the aftermath of Imperial withdrawls.

I am not sure how I wound up reading this book, but this author is absolutely amazing. This book grabs hold of you even before the first page. The title alone made me curious. I could not put this book down and I didn't want it to end. I could feel the emotion written on every page of this book and I felt like I was actually living in Nigeria during this time. The characters, their dreams, their happiness and their heartache all felt so real. I thought the storyline flowed incredibly well. I look forward to reading more books by this author. She has a rare gift and I don't understand how anyone could rate this book less than stellar.

The book is interesting and informative as a docu-fiction about the biafra-Nigerian war, from the Biafran point of view, a view the West knows little about. However the writing style lacks relief as it goes through the various events.