Dancing in the Glory of Monsters by Jason K. Stearns

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters

The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa

Jason K. Stearns

PublicAffairs · Print & ebook · November 4, 2025

A “meticulously researched and comprehensive” (Financial Times) history of the devastating war in the heart of Africa’s Congo At the heart of Africa is the Congo, a country the size of western Europe.

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Who it’s for
A sustained narrative of Congo’s war, attentive to the political choices and moral decisions behind it.
Genres
Central African History, Genocide & War Crimes, African Politics
Published
PublicAffairs, November 4, 2025

About this book

A “meticulously researched and comprehensive” (Financial Times) history of the devastating war in the heart of Africa’s Congo At the heart of Africa is the Congo, a country the size of western Europe. It borders nine other nations, and since 1996 it has been racked by a brutal war in which millions have died.

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In Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, renowned political activist and researcher Jason K. Stearns has written a compelling and deeply reported narrative of how Congo became a failed state that collapsed into a war of retaliatory massacres. Stearns brilliantly describes the key perpetrators, many of whom he met personally, and highlights the nature of the political system that brought these people to power, as well as the moral decisions with which the war confronted them. Now updated with a new introduction, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters tells the full story of Africa’s great war.

War and Power

A sustained narrative of Congo’s war, attentive to the political choices and moral decisions behind it.

Come here for

  • A deeply reported history of Congo’s war and political collapse
  • The people and power structures behind a conflict of retaliatory massacres

Expect

  • A wide-angle account of Africa’s great war
  • Close attention to key perpetrators and the system that brought them to power

Where it sits

Central African History84%
African Politics29%
Genocide & War Crimes27%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Central African History
  • African Politics
  • Genocide & War Crimes
Authors
Jason K. Stearns
Publisher
PublicAffairs
Published
November 4, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Central African History