Adam Hochschild wrote an amazing book called King Leopold’s Ghost a few years ago.  I interviewed the guy on my old radio show and was mightily impressed, both with him and his book.  It’s about the murderous Belgian colonization of the Congo, but it’s also an object lesson in the rationalizations of empire — about how hifalutin words like generosity to the natives so often turn out to be simply a fig leaf for self-interest, brutality, and plunder.

Bizarrely, George W. Bush recently claimed to have just finished it.  In which case, his reading-comprehension level must be near zero.

Adam just took the guy apart in the L.A. Times today.