Lord Leverhulme's ghosts
Subtitle: colonial exploitation in the Congo
By: Jules Marchal ; translated by Martin Thom ; introduced by Adam Hochschild.
Contributors: Thom, Martin.; Hochschild, Adam.
Publisher: Verso
Published: 2008
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9781844672394
Subjects: Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, -- Viscount, -- 1851-1925 -- Relations with Blacks.; Forced labor -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History.; Rubber industry and trade -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History.; Human rights -- Congo (Democratic Republic); Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- 1908-1960.; Great Britain -- Colonies -- Africa.; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Race relations.; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Colonization.
Work titles: Travail forcé pour l'huile de palme de Lord Leverhulme.
Description: In the early twentieth century, the worldwide rubber boom led British enterpreneur Lord Leverhulme to the Belgian Congo. Warmly welcomed by the murderous regime of King Leopold II, Leverhulme set up a private kingdom reliant on the horrific Belgian system of forced labor, a program that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi holocaust. In this definitive, meticulously researched history, Jules Marchal exposes the nature of forced labor under Lord Leverhulme's rule and the appalling conditions imposed upon the inhabitants of Congo. With an extensive introduction by Adam Hochschild, "Lord Leverhulme's Ghosts" is an important and urgently needed account of a laboratory of colonial exploitation. -- Book jacket.
Notes: "This English-language edition is an abridgement of the original French text"--P. [xxiv].

Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-238) and index.