King Leopold's Ghost
December 18, 2008
I realized a couple years ago, that as an US born guy, my country's history has always been the only history our schools spend much time on. At least in my personal experience. I knew/know next to nothing about the histories of other countries and cultures. So, I've been scouring wikipedia and amazon over the last couple years for histories of eastern and european civilization. But only recently have i discovered history, compelling history on Africa. And I'm still very ignorant about African history. I know it's such a rich and beautiful and for much of it, an incredibly sad history that is still being written. You've read a lot of the horrors that still exist there in this very blog. One book that I read that literally and completely changed my understanding of the culture and suffering still going on (specifically in the Congo) was "King Leopold's Ghost" and I highly suggest you check it out and pour thorugh it. It's incredibly upsetting and it's befuddling how much of the issues that are accounted in this book from the late 1800's are still perveyant today. Check it out...
and P.S. I don't mean to suggest that the entire continent of Africa and all of African History is sad and depressing. There is sooo much beauty in that country and i'm looking forward to discovering that more and more.
Lauren Eberle said:
it's funny you mention the fact that american schools only teach american history because my generation completely lacks knowledge of even american history, history in schools has gone down the drain and i know this because i went to primary school overseas and can still name all the presidents (ok, maybe like half of them... but at least 50% more than any american taught kid i know). anyway! i always love a good cultural historical book. i'll ch-ch-check it out. 
YinMay Yap said:
same thing with the schools in Malaysia. they only focus on malaysian history and nothing else. but this in my opinion, is a bad, or worse thing yet, the worst thing for us is that they tend to manipulate historical facts into their favor thinking that we won't find out. 
