Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Volume 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence) [Paperback]

Martin Bernal (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1991

Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization by Bernal, Martin

Product Details

• Paperback: 814 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (June 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081351584X
• ISBN-13: 978-0813515847
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fight Bias with Bias, August 21, 2002

By 

Kevin (LA, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Volume 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence) (Paperback)

Martin Bernal had an opportunity to write a book which would change our view of the classical world. Two of his premises, today, are unarguable: academics in the 19th century and before created a canonical Ancient Greece which never existed to justify their beliefs in European cultural superiority; the real Hellas was part of a larger world, the Greeks borrowed a lot from Babylon, Phonecia, Egypt, Persia, and so on. Ancient writers never hid this. One can read Herodotus and discover how he credits these "barbarians" with important ideas and innovations.

Bernal, it seems, succombed to political correctness and wrote a silly book instead. Why "black" Athena? Why emphasize Africa over Asia when Egypt, by this time, had become a province of larger empires? The readers of Bernal's book might be surprised to discover that he's not the father of "afrocentrism" some portray. The intelligent Bernal wants to win credit for the cultures in Asia and Africa which were part of this large Ancient world.

Bernal the polemicist, sadly, never leaves the kooky world of the late 20th century. There was no such thing as "Africa" in the ancient world in the way we currently understand it. The politicization of race is a modern phenomenon (even if most Eygptians were "black", which is dubious, they weren't racially conscience and didn't have ties to central Africa). Lastly the Greeks did not "steal" everything. It's impossible to write an intelligent history of this period without examining how the Greeks invented some ideas, borrowed some others, and out of this synthesis created something new.

The library of Alexandria was a Greek library. There was no Egyptian library in Athens. Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle and conquored the known world. The Byzantines spoke Greek. When Arab culture experienced its golden age they worked with Greek texts. Bernal seems so intent upon discrediting the originality of the ancient Greeks he creates another world which never existed.

This book can be used as a primary source for the "culture wars" of the 1990s. A promising thesis was compromised by ideological overreach. Still worth reading but dated and, in places, inane.

27 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars pedestrian propaganda, October 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Volume 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence) (Paperback)

Although all avenues of historical research should be investigated (where reasonable leads exist), this is truely an endeavor in historical revisionism, hence unmatched except by the late Soviet scholasticship of claiming every invention from flight to democracy.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Foray Into A Realm Filled With Hateful Racists, May 2, 2009

By 

RepublicConstitution "Freedom" (Earth) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Volume 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence) (Paperback)

Dr. Bernal continues his brilliant analysis of Egyptian-Greek connections during ancient times. Unfortunately, due to the racism and extreme hatred from a select few of European roots who seem to loathe those of African descent, these books are reviewed poorly. No doubt this is primarily due to latent white racism, Eurocentrism, and the inability to deal with evidence which contradicts firmly held beliefs. Much like a religion, Euro-descended persons seem to think that it is their birthright to believe that their ancestors and only their ancestors developed the so-called "wonder of civilization". This is a position much abused throughout history to justify warfare, slavery, subjugation, murder, and even genocide of dark-skinned peoples the world over. Dr. Bernal's work helps to rectify some of these historical wrongs by offering a potential alternative that should be considered rather than dismissed ipso facto. In some ways, the second volume may be considered the weakest of the three with the historiographical aspects of Volume I generally being lauded even by some of the historians who spew so much vitriol at Dr. Bernal and Afrocentrists in general. Volume III is a major contribution to the study of ancient contacts which is still not as widely publicized and consequently also not considered as controversial. Hopefully, over time, humans will be able to shed some of their hateful and racist beliefs so that we can get a truly proper historical analysis of the early connections between Egypt and Europe and these books are a significant part of that overall process.