Overview

Black Athena, an audacious three-volume series, strikes at the heart of today's most heated culture wars. Martin Bernal challenges Eurocentric attitudes by calling into question conventional explanations for the origins of classical civilization. Provocative, passionate, and colossal in scope, this thoughtful rewriting of history continues to stir academic and political controversy.

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9781978804272

Table of Contents

Reviews

In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition. --Perry Anderson The Guardian A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find. --Margaret Drabble The Observer Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince. --Richard Jenkyns Times Higher Educational Supplement His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him. --R. A. McNeal Franklin and Marshall College Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives. --Robert L. Pounder American Historical Review Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all. --Times Literary Supplement [Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology. --Current Anthropology Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt. --Transition Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement. --Socialist Review Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial. --Baltimore Sun An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing. --G. W. Bowersock Journal of Interdisciplinary History A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics. --Christian Science Monitor Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt. --New York Times Book Review A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Classic Philology A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths. --Toronto Star A monumental and path-breaking work. --Edward Said [Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization. --Newsweek Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses.... He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers. --Mary Lefkowitz Newsweek Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth. --Ama Mazama Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University Martin Bernal's Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. --Molefi Kete Asante author of The History of Africa, Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University

"""Martin Bernal’s Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history."" -- Molefi Kete Asante * author of The History of Africa, Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University * ""In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition."" -- Perry Anderson * The Guardian * ""An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing."" -- G. W. Bowersock * Journal of Interdisciplinary History * ""A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find."" -- Margaret Drabble * The Observer * ""Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince."" -- Richard Jenkyns * Times Higher Educational Supplement * ""A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics."" * Christian Science Monitor * ""His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him."" -- R. A. McNeal * Franklin and Marshall College * ""Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives."" -- Robert L. Pounder * American Historical Review * ""Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt."" * New York Times Book Review * ""Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all."" * Times Literary Supplement * ""A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work."" -- Stanley M. Burstein, California State University * Classic Philology * ""[Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology."" * Current Anthropology * ""A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths."" * Toronto Star * ""Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt."" * Transition * ""Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement."" * Socialist Review * ""A monumental and path-breaking work."" -- Edward Said ""[Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization."" * Newsweek * ""Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial."" * Baltimore Sun * ""Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth.""   -- Ama Mazama * Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University * “Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses…. He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers.” -- Mary Lefkowitz * Newsweek *"

In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition. --Perry Anderson The Guardian An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing. --G. W. Bowersock Journal of Interdisciplinary History A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find. --Margaret Drabble The Observer Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince. --Richard Jenkyns Times Higher Educational Supplement A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics. --Christian Science Monitor His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him. --R. A. McNeal Franklin and Marshall College Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives. --Robert L. Pounder American Historical Review Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt. --New York Times Book Review A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Classic Philology [Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology. --Current Anthropology A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths. --Toronto Star Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt. --Transition Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement. --Socialist Review A monumental and path-breaking work. --Edward Said Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial. --Baltimore Sun Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all. --Times Literary Supplement Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses.... He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers. --Mary Lefkowitz Newsweek [Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization. --Newsweek Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth. --Ama Mazama Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University Martin Bernal's Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. --Molefi Kete Asante author of The History of Africa, Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University

In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition. --Perry Anderson The Guardian An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing. --G. W. Bowersock Journal of Interdisciplinary History A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find. --Margaret Drabble The Observer Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince. --Richard Jenkyns Times Higher Educational Supplement A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics. --Christian Science Monitor His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him. --R. A. McNeal Franklin and Marshall College Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives. --Robert L. Pounder American Historical Review Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt. --New York Times Book Review Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all. --Times Literary Supplement A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Classic Philology [Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology. --Current Anthropology A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths. --Toronto Star Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt. --Transition Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement. --Socialist Review A monumental and path-breaking work. --Edward Said Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial. --Baltimore Sun [Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization. --Newsweek Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses.... He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers. --Mary Lefkowitz Newsweek Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth. --Ama Mazama Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University Martin Bernal's Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. --Molefi Kete Asante author of The History of Africa, Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University

[Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Current Anthropology [Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization. --Edward Said Newsweek A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Toronto Star A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics. --Richard Jenkyns Christian Science Monitor A monumental and path-breaking work. --Edward Said Socialist Review A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Classic Philology A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find. --Margaret Drabble The Observer An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing. --G. W. Bowersock Journal of Interdisciplinary History Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses.... He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers. --Mary Lefkowitz Newsweek Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Transition Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince. --Richard Jenkyns Times Higher Educational Supplement Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives. --Robert L. Pounder American Historical Review Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement. --Stanley M. Burstein, California State University Socialist Review Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt. --Robert L. Pounder New York Times Book Review Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all. --Robert L. Pounder Times Literary Supplement His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him. --R. A. McNeal Franklin and Marshall College In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition. --Perry Anderson The Guardian Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial. --Edward Said Baltimore Sun Martin Bernal's Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. --Molefi Kete Asante author of The History of Africa, Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth. --Ama Mazama Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University

Author Information

MARTIN BERNAL (1937-2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history and a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His celebrated Black Athena trilogy is a controversial series which argues that Ancient Greek civilization and language are Eastern and Egyptian in origin.

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