King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998) is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of the Belgians between 1885 and 1908, as well as the large-scale atrocities committed during that period. The book, also a general biography of the private life of King Leopold, succeeded in increasing public awareness of these crimes in recent decades. The book was refused by nine of the ten U.S. publishing houses to which an outline was submitted, but became an unexpected bestseller and won the prestigious Mark Lynton History Prize for literary style. It also won the 1999 Duff Cooper Prize. By 2013 more than 600,000 copies were in print in a dozen languages. The book is the basis of a 2006 documentary film of the same name, directed by Pippa Scott and narrated by Don Cheadle.