Review
"This courageous book is a plea for more nuanced understanding and the silencing of the analysis-free `the horror, the horror' exclamation that Congo still routinely wrings from Western lips."
--Michaela Wrong, The Spectator
"[Stearns] is probably the most widely travelled and the most meticulous and empathetic observer of the war there. This is a serious book about the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times--as well as a damn good read."
--Economist
"(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters is) a brave and accessible take on the leviathan at the heart of so many of Africa's problems... Stearns's eye for detail, culled from countless interviews, brings this book alive... I once wrote that the Congo suffers from `a lack of institutional memory', meaning that its atrocities well so inexorably that nobody bothers to keep an account of them. Stearns's book goes a long way to putting that right."
--Daily Telegraph
"(T)he best account so far (of the Congolese conflict): more serious than several recent macho-war-correspondent travelogues, and more lucid and accessible than its nearest competitor... The task facing anyone who tries to tell this whole story is formidable, but Stearns by and large rises to it..."
--The Scotsman
"(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters) is a serious, admirably balanced account of the crisis and the political and social forces behind it, providing vivid portraits of both victims and perpetrators and eyewitness accounts of the main events... (this is) perhaps the most accessible, meticulously researched and comprehensive overview of the Congo crisis yet." --Financial Times
"(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters is) one of the most gripping and comprehensive accounts of this human tragedy yet written... Stearns makes a convincing case that greater international understanding is a crucial first step - and if he's right then this book could be a major contribution."
--New Humanist
(R)eadable and humane...This intelligent and moving book may help us understand some of the people of the Congo better. --TLS
A serious account of the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times... by one of its most meticulous and empathetic observers.
--The Economist (Books of the Year)
--Michaela Wrong, The Spectator
"[Stearns] is probably the most widely travelled and the most meticulous and empathetic observer of the war there. This is a serious book about the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times--as well as a damn good read."
--Economist
"(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters is) a brave and accessible take on the leviathan at the heart of so many of Africa's problems... Stearns's eye for detail, culled from countless interviews, brings this book alive... I once wrote that the Congo suffers from `a lack of institutional memory', meaning that its atrocities well so inexorably that nobody bothers to keep an account of them. Stearns's book goes a long way to putting that right."
--Daily Telegraph
"(T)he best account so far (of the Congolese conflict): more serious than several recent macho-war-correspondent travelogues, and more lucid and accessible than its nearest competitor... The task facing anyone who tries to tell this whole story is formidable, but Stearns by and large rises to it..."
--The Scotsman
"(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters) is a serious, admirably balanced account of the crisis and the political and social forces behind it, providing vivid portraits of both victims and perpetrators and eyewitness accounts of the main events... (this is) perhaps the most accessible, meticulously researched and comprehensive overview of the Congo crisis yet." --Financial Times
"(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters is) one of the most gripping and comprehensive accounts of this human tragedy yet written... Stearns makes a convincing case that greater international understanding is a crucial first step - and if he's right then this book could be a major contribution."
--New Humanist
(R)eadable and humane...This intelligent and moving book may help us understand some of the people of the Congo better. --TLS
A serious account of the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times... by one of its most meticulous and empathetic observers.
--The Economist (Books of the Year)
Product Description
At the heart of Africa is Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and unstaunchable war in which millions have died. And yet, despite its epic proportions, it has received little sustained media attention. In this deeply reported book, Jason Stearns vividly tells the story of this misunderstood conflict through the experiences of those who engineered and perpetrated it. He depicts village pastors who survived massacres, the child soldier assassin of President Kabila, a female Hutu activist who relives the hunting and methodical extermination of fellow refugees, and key architects of the war that became as great a disaster asand was a direct consequence ofthe genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. Through their stories, he tries to understand why such mass violence made sense, and why stability has been so elusive. Through their voices, and an astonishing wealth of knowledge and research, Stearns chronicles the political, social, and moral decay of the Congolese State.
About the Author
Jason Stearns has been working on the conflict in the Congo for the past nine years, most recently as the head of a special United Nations panel investigating Congolese rebel groups. He first travelled to the Congo in 2001 to work for a local human rights group in the border town of Bukavu, which was then at the epicenter of the war. He later worked for the United Nations peacekeeping operation, as well as a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. His journalism and opinion pieces have appeared in The Economist, Africa Confidential, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. He is also a regular guest on the BBC, Radio France International, NPR and CNN. He is completing a PhD at Yale University.
