A ›Crisis of Whiteness‹ in the ›Heart of Darkness‹ Racism and the Congo Reform Movement Felix Lösing

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Lösing, Felix <p>Felix Lösing, Universität Hamburg, Deutschland</p>, Author.

Series:

Kulturen der Gesellschaft

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Racism.

Colonialism.

Congo.

Atrocities.

Congo Reform Movement.

Postcolonialism.

Cultural History.

History of Colonialism.

Sociology.

Local Subjects:

Racism.

Colonialism.

Congo.

Atrocities.

Congo Reform Movement.

Postcolonialism.

Cultural History.

History of Colonialism.

Sociology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (396 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Lösing, A ›Crisis of Whiteness‹ in the ›Heart of Darkness‹ Racism and the Congo Reform Movement

Place of Publication:

Bielefeld transcript Verlag 2021

Bielefeld transcript Verlag, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Felix Lösing (Dr. phil.), born 1983, teaches at the Leuphana University Lüneburg. The sociologist studied at the Hamburg University for Economics and Political Science, the University of Hamburg and the University of Essex, Colchester. He did his doctorate at the University of Hamburg. His research focuses on history and theory of racism and colonialism.

Summary:

The British and American Congo Reform Movement (ca. 1890-1913) has been praised extensively for its ›heroic‹ confrontation of colonial atrocities in the Congo Free State. Its commitment to white supremacy and colonial domination, however, continues to be overlooked, denied, or trivialised. This historical-sociological study argues that racism was the ideological cornerstone and formed the main agenda of this first major human rights campaign of the 20th century. Through a thorough analysis of contemporary sources, Felix Lösing unmasks the colonial and racist formation of the modern human rights discourse and investigates the ›historical work‹ of racism at a crossroads between imperial power and ›white crisis‹.

»The book is quite valuable in providing a new perspective annew insights on the Congo reform movement. The bonus for scholars more broadly is the modelhe provides for examining other movements and geopolitical events in the decades before andafter the First World War.«

»Lösings Studie bietet einen wichtigen und längst überfälligen, weil rassismuskritischen Blick auf eine humanitäre Bewegung, von der viele akademische und publizistische Meinungsführer:innen behaupten, sie sei die erste Menschenrechtsbewegung der Moderne gewesen. Das vorliegende Werk ist durch akribische Recherche charakterisiert und resultiert in einer lesenswerten Rekonstruktion des historischen und kulturellen Diskurses um die CRA, ohne dabei ideologisch zu polarisieren oder zu relativieren.«

Contents:

Frontmatter 1 Contents 5 1. Introduction: Conrad's ghosts 7 2. Colonisation and 'reform' of the Congo 47 3. Congo reform and the crisis of racist representation 125 4. Congo reform and the crisis of racist politics 197 5. Congo reform and the crisis of racist societalisation 269 6. Conclusion 339 Acknowledgements 357 References 359

Notes:

Doctoral Thesis Universität Hamburg 2020

This eBook is made available Open Access. Unless otherwise specified in the content, the work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed December 19 2025)

ISBN:

9783839454985

3839454980

OCLC:

1233040446