Exterminate All The Brutes Analysis

Throughout the different ages of the world, we have seen many changes and have seen many themes that seem to reappear. Some of these themes are racism, imperialism, and genocide. In Sven Lindqvist’s book, “Exterminate All the Brutes!”, he writes about the trends that characterized the nineteenth century in Africa while comparing them to other historical events across the globe. After reading this book, we can see what imperialism, racism, and genocide has caused to play a role in influencing the world we live in today by looking at the past events in history related to more present ones. This is important because we have noticed many events thought to have been caused by one person is really a recurring event.
While reading this book, a reader will be taken through three journeys. The first is Lindqvist’s own voyage through the Sahara. When describing his excursion, one will learn about the situation of the people in Africa. Including their social and economic situation, their lifestyle, and their corrupt officials (Lindqvist 2-34). The second journey is mainly the time when the author explains his main topic of how racism first came about in Europe and its major rise in the twentieth century. Lindqvist references Joseph Conrad’s book, Heart of Darkness, to illustrate this topic (Lindqvist …show more content…
His main idea is that the only thing humans have done is exterminate the brutes, or the inferior races. He then goes on to explain that humankind would then try to condone their actions with scientific theories and argumentation. Lindqvist is mainly discussing one problem, which is why people believe that they are more distinguished and why they think this gives them the right to exterminate others who are variant or of a lesser social class. This question still seems to be prominent in today’s societal thoughts and