“ Today we are less likely to speak of humanitarianism, with its overtones of paternalistic generosity, and more likely to speak of human rights. The basic freedoms in life are not seen as gifts to be d… Adam Hochschild
“ The first World War in so many ways shaped the 20th century and really remade our world for the worse. Adam Hochschild
“ Most striking about the traditional societies of the Congo was their remarkable artwork: baskets, mats, pottery, copper and ironwork, and above all, woodcarving. It would be two decades before Europea… Adam Hochschild
“ Self-government is our right," [Roger Casement] declared. "A thing born in us at birth; a thing no more to be doled out to us or withheld from us by another people than the right to life itself - than… Adam Hochschild
“ Unlike, say, witch-burning, slavery, and apartheid, which were once taken for granted and are now officially outlawed, war is still with us. Adam Hochschild
“ Stanley’s painful inhibitions are a reminder that the adventurers who carried out the European seizure of Africa were often not the bold, bluff, hardy men of legend, but restless, unhappy, driven men,… Adam Hochschild
“ To get at parts of the vine high off the ground, men frantic to get every possible drop of rubber would sometimes tear down the whole vine, slice it into sections, and squeeze the rubber out. Although… Adam Hochschild
“ That Newton shuddered now [at slavery] is a testimony to they way a strong social movement can awaken a conscience.. Adam Hochschild
“ Monsters exist, wrote Primo Levi of his experience at Auschwitz. But they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are . . . the functionaries ready to believe and to act without as… Adam Hochschild
“ And so the bulk of chicotte blows were inflicted by Africans on the bodies of other Africans. This, for the conquerors, served a further purpose. It created a class of foremen from among the conquered… Adam Hochschild
“ Casement quoted an African proverb: A man doesn't go among thorns unless a snake's after him—or he's after a snake. He added, I'm after a snake and please God I'll scotch it. Adam Hochschild
“ As the years passed, new myths arose to explain the mysterious objects the strangers brought from the land of the dead. A nineteenth-century missionary recorded, for example, an African explanation of… Adam Hochschild
“ From the colonial era, the major legacy Europe left to Africa was not democracy as it is practiced today in countries like England, France, and Belgium; it was authoritarian rule and plunder. On the w… Adam Hochschild
“ Except for Lefranc, few Europeans working for the regime left records of their shock at the sight of officially sanctioned terror. The white men who passed through the territory as military officers,… Adam Hochschild
“ So eager were its officials that the German government had telegraphed its ambassador in St. Petersburg two declarations of war to be delivered to Russia's foreign minister: one if Russia did not repl… Adam Hochschild
“ Those who are conquered, wrote the philosopher Ibn Khaldun in the fourteenth century, always want to imitate the conqueror in his main characteristics—in his clothing, his crafts, and in all his disti… Adam Hochschild
“ During and after the war, though, no one in the Allied countries wanted to be reminded that, only a decade or two earlier, it was the King of the Belgians whose men in Africa had cut off hands. And so… Adam Hochschild
“ When Leopold wrote that the precise frontiers of the new state or states would be defined later, [German Chancellor] Bismarck said to an aide, His Majesty displays the pretensions and naive selfishnes… Adam Hochschild
“ Furthermore, unlike many other great predators of history, from Genghis Khan to the Spanish conquistadors, King Leopold II never saw a drop of blood spilled in anger. He never set foot in the Congo. T… Adam Hochschild
