Jason Stearns has been working on the conflict in the Congo for the past ten years. In 2008 he was named by the UN Secretary General to lead a special UN investigation into the violence in the country. He has also worked for a Congolese human rights group, for the United Nations peacekeeping operation, and for the International Crisis Group. He is currently completing a PhD at Yale University.
Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2011
"He is a cracking writer, with a wry sense of understatement...Mr.
Stearns has spoken to everyone--villagers, child soldiers, Mobutu's
commanders, Kabila's ministers, Rwandan intelligence officers. In
these conversations he found gold, bringing clarity--and
humanity--to a place that usually seems inexplicable and barbaric.
'Dancing in the Glory of Monsters' is riveting and certain to
become essential reading for anyone looking to understand Central
Africa." Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011
"Stearns is more concerned with the perceptions, motivations, an
actions of an eclectic mix of actors in the conflict--from a Tutsi
warlord who engaged in massive human rights violations to a Hutu
activist turned refugee living in the camps and forests of eastern
Congo. He tells their stories with a judicious mix of empathy and
distance, linking them to a broader narrative of a two-decade-long
conflict that has involved a dozen countries and claimed six
million victims."
Washington Post, April 24, 2011
Telegraph, May 13, 2011
"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."
The Spectator, May 8, 2011
"(t)his 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."
Sunday Times, May 1, 2011
"Stearns has done a fine job of amassing vast amounts (of
material), much of it based directly on interviews with the
participants and victims, to bring to light details of a
scandalously under-reported war... (T)his book succeeds in
providing a vivid chronicles of this rolling conflict involving 20
rival rebel groups.The Shepherd Express
"a vivid chronicle of the carnage that helps illuminate a tragedy
too enormous to comprehend" Financial Times, June, 24, 2011
Kirkus, February 15, 2011
"Impressively controlled account of the devastating Congo war...The
book's greatest strength is the eyewitness dialogue; Stearns
discusses his encounters with everyone from major military figures
to residents of remote villages (he was occasionally suspected of
being a CIA spy)...An important examination of a social disaster
that seems both politically complex and cruelly
senseless."Booklist
"Covering the devastating effects of these deadly contests on the
Congolese infrastructure, Congolese institutions, and people's
lives, Stearns informatively reports on affairs for students of
African politics."
New York Times Book Review, April 3, 2011 "The best account [of the
conflict in the Congo] so far; more serious than several recent
macho-war-correspondent travelogues and more lucid and accessible
than its nearest competitor...The task facing anyone who tires to
tell this whole story is formidable, but Stearns by and large rises
to it. He has lived in the country, and has done a raft of
interviews with people who witnessed what happened before he got
there...his picture is clear, made painfully real by a series of
close-up portraits."
"Enter Jason Stearns. One of Congo's most intrepid observers, he
describes the war from the point of view of its perpetrators. He
has tracked down and interviewed a rogue's gallery of them. The
resulting book, "Dancing in the Glory of Monsters," is a tour de
force, though not for the squeamish." Economist, April 28,
2011"[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." Global Post, April 26, 2011
"Stearns is a leading authority on the region, having lived there
for years working for the United Nations and the International
Crisis Group. He has built up a superb knowledge of Congo and how
it articulates with its neighbours, particularly Rwanda, Uganda and
Burundi. He frequently imparts his understanding to journalists far
less well-informed than he. And now he has produced a book where he
makes the whole convoluted and confusing war in Congo a little more
comprehensible, which is quite a feat. If you want to understand
modern Congo then Stearns' book should be required reading."
"Kirkus," February 15, 2011
"Impressively controlled account of the devastating Congo war...The
book's greatest strength is the eyewitness dialogue; Stearns
discusses his encounters with everyone from major military figures
to residents of remote villages (he was occasionally suspected of
being a CIA spy)...An important examination of a social disaster
that seems both politically complex and cruelly
senseless.""Booklist
""Covering the devastating effects of these deadly contests on the
Congolese infrastructure, Congolese institutions, and people's
lives, Stearns informatively reports on affairs for students of
African politics."
"New York Times Book Review," April 3, 2011 "The best account [of
the conflict in the Congo] so far; more serious than several recent
macho-war-correspondent travelogues and more lucid and accessible
than its nearest competitor...The task facing anyone who tires to
tell this whole story is formidable, but Stearns by and large rises
to it. He has lived in the country, and has done a raft of
interviews with people who witnessed what happened before he got
there...his picture is clear, made painfully real by a series of
close-up portraits."
"
Wall Street Journal," March 2, 2011
"He is a cracking writer, with a wry sense of understatement...Mr.
Stearns has spoken to everyone--villagers, child soldiers, Mobutu's
commanders, Kabila's ministers, Rwandan intelligence officers. In
these conversations he found gold, bringing clarity--and
humanity--to a place that usually seems inexplicable and barbaric.
'Dancing in the Glory of Monsters' is riveting and certain to
become essential reading for anyone looking to understand Central
Africa." "Foreign Affairs," May/June 2011
"Stearns is more concerned with the perceptions, motivations, an
actions of an eclectic mix of actors in the conflict--from a Tutsi
warlord who engaged in massive human rights violations to a Hutu
activist turned refugee living in the camps and forests of eas
"Kirkus", February 15, 2011
"Impressively controlled account of the devastating Congo war...The
book's greatest strength is the eyewitness dialogue; Stearns
discusses his encounters with everyone from major military figures
to residents of remote villages (he was occasionally suspected of
being a CIA spy)...An important examination of a social disaster
that seems both politically complex and cruelly
senseless.""Booklist" "Covering the devastating effects of these
deadly contests on the Congolese infrastructure, Congolese
institutions, and people's lives, Stearns informatively reports on
affairs for students of African politics."
"Kirkus", February 15, 2011
"Impressively controlled account of the devastating Congo war...The
book's greatest strength is the eyewitness dialogue; Stearns
discusses his encounters with everyone from major military figures
to residents of remote villages (he was occasionally suspected of
being a CIA spy)...An important examination of a social disaster
that seems both politically complex and cruelly senseless."
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