Customer Reviews

Heresy In The University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals

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Berlinerblau wades into the Black Athena controversy and calls a lot of people to task. He summarizes the weighty work of Martin Bernal (who he apparently interviewed and commented on various parts of the book) and critiques both Black Athena and its critics. In short, Berlinerblau concludes: Martin Bernal proves that a lot of antiquity studies have had some serious biases, and his work has forced a lot of reassessment on the part of antquity scholars, but; the antiquity scholars prove that Bernal has made a lot of errors. Berlinerblau also calls some of Bernal's critics to task for the vehemence of their attack on Bernal, punishing him on facts while dismissing some larger points. As far as some of the big arguments (was Athena black, were Egyptians 'black', etc.) Berlinerblau explains the sources, arguments, problems (like projecting 19th century concepts of race back 3000 years) and concludes that the most extreme viewpoints (on either side of the argument) are probably not true, though many of Bernal's points quite possibly are, and that, barring some spectacular discoveries, we will probably never know for certain. Berlinerblau praises Bernal for engaging the public in his work, and feels that scholars should work more to became public intellectuals. One can tell that the author cares and wants to be understood, admitting his weaknesses and trying to be fair to all viewpoints.

This is a good book. Berlinerblau has done a convincing job of being fair to all sides, and he does not appear to admire any of the people he writes about. This book says a lot about the way scholars look at one another these days, and the lessons he brings are useful in considering any number of entrenched disputes in the academy today. In the end, the book has a rather depressing message: moral zealots are in charge on both sides of so called 'ideological warfare' today, and neither side is prepared to doubt their right to lie. The book can be dry, but the kind of thing under discussion has no finer demonstration in any work I have read. Luckily, the topic, Bernal's BLACK ATHENA, is a very curious case, especially since Bernal is a white man. Some parts of this are engrossing.

Martin Bernal (now a Professor Emeritus of Government and Near Eastern Studies from Cornell University) wrote one of the more controversial books in the 1980s, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985, Volume 1)), which suggested that the classical Greeks borrowed heavily from "Afroasiatic" cultures. Bernal's book has been very influential in the Afrocentrism movement, and has also been criticized (see Not Out Of Africa: How "Afrocentrism" Became An Excuse To Teach Myth As History (A New Republic book) and Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes). Bernal himself has responded to many of the criticisms of his 3-volume book in Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics.

Berlinerblau's book, however, was written in 1999, and has a considerable advantage in terms of PERSPECTIVE. Berlinerblau (associate professor and Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University) first makes a very helpful summary of the contents of Bernal's book, and divides his presentation into three sections: 1. The Historical Argument, 2. The Sociological Argument, and 3. "Black Athena and the Culture Wars."

Berlinerblau clarifies the record about Bernal about several issues (e.g., Bernal is white and Jewish; he is not a Marxist, nor is he an Afrocentrist); he also includes a number of very helpful pieces of information about Bernal and his book (e.g., Bernal had a difficulty finding a publisher; he agrees that his work is "politically motivated"; Bernal thinks that the book's title should have been "AFRICAN Athena," but the publisher thought the "BLACK Athena" title would sell better).

Berlinerblau makes worthwhile criticisms of Bernal; e.g., "The author has again neglected to articulate a program for the implementation of his ideas. How exactly do we distinguish plausible theories from implausible ones? Bernal offers no answers to this vexing question." Berlinerblau's final chapter ("Contentious Communities") discusses the matter of "Blacks and Jews and Black Athena."

For anyone interested in Martin Bernal's "Black Athena," the debate over Afrocentrism, or scholarly controversies, this book is a "must read."

I thought the book was really good. I would hope that the hallowed halls of American academia realizes that no longer can the biased 18th century scholarship and modern chicanery posing as research maintain its hegmony. Truth continues to be unearthed (literally), and its up to modern scholarship to either document the truth or just continue the business as usual that 18th century scholars (so-called egyptologists, archeologists)perpetuated.