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'.
