Customer Reviews

Introduction to Black Studies

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is an excellent introduction to the breadth and depth of Black Studies. Karenga treats the subject with great care and the details of a scholar. He provides a great bibliography to help the reader locate the views and ideas of others. This book is also great for classroom use. Students love it. You will grow with this book. It is well written and easy to follow. He systematically builds each chapter for the reader. It is a classic and a must read for anyone who is remotely interested in Black Studies. I highly recommend it!

The Introduction to Black Studies by Dr. Maulana Karenga is an invaluable contribution to history and humanity in terms of its afrocentric context in analyzing and accurately introducing the rich and varied history and contribution of continental Africans, African Americans and other Black peoples through out the World African Community to its readers. This book is a must read not only for those in college classes, it should also be used in high school curriculums, Rites of Passage programs and adults alike. I have yet to find another introductory text that gives such a comprehensive analysis of Black life in dignity affirming terms than the I.B.S. The structure in which the I.B.S. is presented to its reader provides for smooth transitions from one category or subject to another. Dr. Karenga appears to order the table of contents in the order of the seven basics areas of culture, i.e. Spirituality and Ethics, History, Social organization, Economic organization, Political organization, Creative Production and Ethos. The origin of this cultural structure is developed from the Communitarian African Philosophy, Kawaida, which means, "Tradition and Reason" also created by Dr. Karenga. More on Kawaida Philosophy can be found on page 173 of the I.B.S. The reader of the I.B.S. will also discover that Dr. Karenga uses category's that provides a logic of liberation in suggesting alternatives to the dominant society's views and values, in how they relate to the views and values of African Americans and other Black peoples. After each subject, Dr. Karenga has provided the reader with study questions and an extensive reference list from which further research and study can take place. Again, I highly recommend the reading of the Introduction to Black Studies and keeping it in one's personnal library as a major reference source.

An Introduction to Black Studies is an excellent book for all those interested in understanding African and African American history. No book can capture the total history of a people, but Karenga does give you an exceptional look at a wide variety of historical and cultural components. This is a "text" book. It is not a novel. This is not the book that you read for pleasure. It is for information. I used this same edition in my I.B.S. class and it changed my life. I actually was looking for a later edition when I saw the reviews. I couldn't believe what people were saying about the book so I was forced to write something. I always have highly recommended this book as a must have to a person who is interested in African Studies. And I will do it again here...you should buy this book.

I am always able to buy text books on Amazon. The prices vary and you can
usually get a good deal on a used book. Receive them very fast.

I respect greatly the amount of time and effort Karenga obviously has spent on this work. A lot of material is covered; however I must contest the statement that it is well written. Many many basic grammatical errors as well as an undeniably wordy writing style at times make this book less than an enjoyable read.

I was sincerely dissapointed with the strong sense of Karenga's opinion evident in many places throughout the book. There is certainly nothing wrong with Karenga having an opinion or expressing it, but in an educational work designed to give the reader an introduction to black studies The authors personal passions about the "right" ideas versus the "wrong" ones relating to the advancement of black society seemed out of place.

It is an interesting work, I just find it dissapointing that this is the "definative work in the field of Black studies". Still a lot of good information is contained therein.

I had this book for a black studies class and wasn't especially happy with it. There is some content, but the author's overly verbose style makes it hard to extract. This book could easily have been 1/3rd the length and still made the points it made.

The author himself is a strong Marxist, calling for things like "people owning the means of production". These ideas were tried for close to a century in Eastern Europe and created an incredible amount of misery and ultimately failed. Karenga also has a criminal past, and not for something admirable like getting arrested for a protest. Rather, he kidnapped and tortured two women. Among other things, he burned them with a soldering iron and forced detergent into their mouths. (do a search on "karenga conviction" to learn more)

I still have an interest in the topic of Black Studies and would love to come across a better book.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of purchasing this book for my Introduction to Black Studies class. After somehow managing to read the first three or so chapters, I gave up reading it the rest of the semester. Why? Because the book did not help at all. First off, it is EXTREMELY long and drawn out-- it could easily have been half the length (mind you, that each chapter seems like it drags on forever). Karenga has a tendency to explain the simplest concepts in a very confusing way.

Another big disappointment and turn-off was the vast amount of grammatical errors present in the text. There are numerous errors throughout the book-- many of which distract you from actually reading the book. I find this very unprofessional because, as a college student, I had to pay an outrageous price for a book with an unacceptable amount of 6th grade grammatical errors.

I also found the book anti-White and anti-European in many respects. Even though this is a Black Studies course, I was expecting one of the main intentions to be living in harmony with one another-- not constantly bashing each other. One of the most obvious ways I think Karenga shows his lack of respect for Whites is through his refusal to capitalize "White." (You will notice that throughout the book, Black is capitalized all the time, White is never. So you will come across this many times: white and Black.)

In any sense, this book turned out to be a complete waste of time and money. I would recommend another text book if possible-- one this is not outright confusing and drawn out like this one is.

I have read and found this book to be an overtly slanted work. African Americans have a rich and wonderful history. This gentleman is still living in the black power movement which slants the work. What I find disappointing is the conjecture/speculation that this man paints as fact. Many of the citations are Mr. Karenga citing himself. These citations come during points that are in need of citations other than himself. If you are a retard and know absolutely nothing about African American History then this book is for you. As always it is important to research subjects for yourself.I see that there are many 5 star reviews for Karenga, trust me they have to be personal friends!

Good god how can this man be allowed to publish such a monstrosity to the English language? It's wordy, verbose, and as I've found doesn't make sense. His writing ability obscures the many great ideas he has. Read this is you do not get easily annoyed with flawed and wordy sentences.

Karenga is retarded. My 16 year old brother can write better than him. This book contains many grammatical errors, and over use of words like "moreover". Many of the concepts that he were trying to explain were all listed, and some were not even numbered correctly. I'm not sure how he got his Ph'D but it made my experience in my Black Studies class a horrible experience. My advice to you Maulana Karenga, before you try to teach people ideas, please don't make a fool out of yourself by publishing a text book with grammatical errors a junior high student can laugh about. Elaine Brown, now that is a great writer. I recommend "A Black Woman's Story" to everyone.