Colonialism in the Congo Basin, 1880–1940

Samuel H. Nelson is an associate professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

"Nelson's book follows in the tradition of such famous muckrakers who have denounced the colonial exploitation of central Africans as Joseph Conrad and André Gide. But it differs from those impressionistic and anecdotal efforts by providing the reader access to the actual documents which outlined the methods to be utilized in extorting much more than a pound of flesh from a previously vibrant Mongo society. The feeling of outrage that progressively comes from reading the words of company agents, colonial officials, and African victims is carefully stimulated by Nelson's method of presentation … A superb, detailed focus on the colonial experience of a tiny region of the vast African continent." (International Journal of African Historical Studies)