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Thomas Turner. The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality. London and New York: Zed Books, 2007. Distributed in the U.S. by Palgrave Macmillan, xii + 243 pp. Map. Tables. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $117.00. Cloth. $32.00. Paper.
Thomas Turner begins his book with a bold assertion: "The bloodiest war since die Second World War unfolded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-the former Zaire-in the mid-1990s" (1). Turner's ambitious aim is to "establish what happened in Congo, to sort out the explanations, and to offer some recommendations for the future" (8). His account of the unfortunate events that occurred there relies on rational choice, materialist, and cultural approaches. By means of such an eclectic methodology, Turner is able to disentangle the complexity of events in the DRC and provide an elaborate analysis of the Congo wars.
The author begins with an introductory chapter that provides the context of the book. In chapter 2, he briefly discusses the economics of pillage and partition, which he traces back to King Teopold II of Belgium, while chapter 3 explains the conflict in Congo through the ideological lenses of race and resistance in the Great Takes region. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 discuss three interrelated themes that include wars in...