America Midnight- The Great War-A Violent Peace and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild - 2022- 422 Pages

 Almost ten years ago I read Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, about the horrible exploitation of the people of The Congo to advance the wealth of King Leopold of Belgium.

"If you are interested in Colonialism, the history of Africa, or have any romantic notions about European royalty, you need to read King  Leopold's Ghost. Queen Victoria was a cousin of Leopold

This is a great book, both for how it is written and for the forgotten story it tells.  There is also a 2005 end note in which the author talks about  reaction to the book." From my post of November 11, 2012.

As soon as I got notice that his latest book, American Midnight- The Great War- A Violent Peace and America’s Forgotten Crisis was on sale as a Kindle for $2.95 I hit "buy now".

"National Bestseller • One of the year's most acclaimed works of nonfiction

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Kirkus, New York Post, Fast Company

From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a "masterly" (New York Times) reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threatened by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor

The nation was on the brink. Mobs burned Black churches to the ground. Courts threw thousands of people into prison for opinions they voiced—in one notable case, only in private. Self-appointed vigilantes executed tens of thousands of citizens’ arrests. Some seventy-five newspapers and magazines were banned from the mail and forced to close. When the government stepped in, it was often to fan the flames." From the publisher 

It seems to many, including me, that America is now in a period of crisis threatening its tradition of democracy.  There is also a deep fear and paranoia toward immigrants. Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise as is race based hatred.  Absurd Conspiracy theories abound, supported by leading politicians. Over half white Americans support a former president who plays on their fears, who threatened revenge on all who oppose him.  

In the period of the book newspapers now known as in opposition to the policies of trump and his acolytes such as The New York Times and the Washington Post supported the xenophobic policies of Wodrow Wilson. (Now there is a TV network devoted to spreading fears and racism)

They endorsed the imprisonment of all socialists and Union organisers, especially the much feared "Russian Jews" .

Hochschild goes into a lot of detail about president Wodrow Wilson, his role in WW One, the Versiles Treaty and his failed attempt to get the United States to join the League of  Nations.

This book is a warning.  Too many Americans want a return to these times.

Mel Ulm 

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild - 1999- 326 Pages

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild   (1999, 306 pages, 1266 KB, non-fiction)

I have wanted to read Adam Hochschild's 

 account of the terrible exploitation by King Leopold of Belgium of the Congo for some time and I was very to happy to see it was now available in my preferred reading mode, as a Kindle book.   The story told in this book is a horrible one.   I will not repeat the history of the colonial rule of the Belgium Congo  other than to say about six million  people died just to make a King Leopold very rich (several billion in contemporary dollars).   The slaughter was simply beyond easy comprehension.   European employees of the companies owned by the King often shot locals just for sport and horrible methods were used to make them collect rubber and ivory.   Leopold personally owned the Congo and cheated his own country in the process.  

King Leopold (1835 to 1909-King from 1865 to his death) always tried to tell the world, through a lot of vehicles, some were paid writers and others just fools, that he was wanted to rule the Congo (he never went there) in order to keep Arab slavers from capturing the people.  He played on the racism of Europeans to portray the Arabs as monsters and the Africans as children in need of protection.   There is a lot of fascinating data about  European politics in the book.    Belgium does not come through looking very well.

King Leopold emerges from the book a horribly despicable person and a one man argument for the abolition of royalty.  He hated his wife, hated his three daughters.  He spend huge sums on absurd palaces and public works and even  more on the 16 year old prostitute he made his mistress.  His upbringing, which is not talked about in the book, must have been very dysfunctional as his sister, who was at one time the Empress of Mexico, spent about 50 years locked up in a palace in Belgium still thinking she was in Mexico.   He liked young girls, 10 to 15 and had them imported from England.   He got in trouble for this and bought his way out.   You will leave this book hating him.

Hochschild also talks about the life of people like Henry Stanley who helped open up the Congo to white rule (famous for allegedly saying "Doctor Livingston, I presume) and goes into a lot of detail about people who tried to expose what was going on in the Congo.

This is an ugly story.   King Leopold might have been the worse villain but he was far from the only one.   African chiefs sold their own people as slaves and gladly captured those of opposing tribes for bounty to become rubber workers.   Many many left Europe to go to the Congo in search of big money and the ability to be feudal masters.   African women were used as sex slaves.

Hochschild makes some interesting connections.  It was the creation of the rubber tire in the United States by B. F. Goodrich that lead to the huge demand for rubber (rubber plantations were about a decade away at this point in history) that lead to the extreme demand for rubber which lead the workers in the Congo to be killed in the millions in order to "motivate" them to meet demand.   Hochschild does a brilliant job in letting us see just how the rubber farming and collection system worked.

Hochschild does not tell his story in isolation.  He relates it to the other terrible holocausts of the 20th century.   He suggests it is less thought of because the victims were Africans and it is hard to argue with this.

The exploitation of  residents of the Congo continued after the death of Leopold.   During WWII people were forced to mine uranium (and were killed for not working hard enough) and 80 percent of the uranium used in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs came from a mine in the Congo were slackers were shot.  He also talks about The Heart of Darkness in a very illuminating if not entirely accurate way.

If you are interested in Colonialism, the history of Africa, or have any romantic notions about European royalty, you need to read this book.  There is a lot in it I have not covered including a story about a very brave Irishman.   Queen Victoria was a cousin of Leopold's.

This is a great book, both for how it is written and for the forgotten story it tells.  There is also a 2005 end note in which the author talks about  reaction to the book.

Mel Ulm