Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics

In Black Athena Writes Back Martin Bernal responds to the passionate debates set off by the 1987 publication of his book Black Athena. Producing a shock wave of reaction from scholars, Black Athena argued that the development of Greek civilization was heavily influenced by Afroasiatic civilizations. Moreover, Bernal asserted that this knowledge had been deliberately obscured by the rampant racism of nineteenth-century Europeans who could not abide the notion that Greek society—for centuries recognized as the originating culture of Europe—had its origins in Africa and Southwest Asia. The subsequent rancor among classicists over Bernal’s theory and accusations was picked up in the popular media, and his suggestion that Greek culture had its origin in Africa was widely derided. In a report on 60 Minutes, for example, it was suggested that Bernal’s hypothesis was essentially an attempt to provide blacks with self-esteem so that they would feel included in the march of progress. In Black Athena Writes Back Bernal provides additional documentation to back up his thesis, as well as offering persuasive explanations of why traditional scholarship on the subject remains inaccurate and why specific arguments lobbed against his theories are themselves faulty. Black Athena Writes Back requires no prior familiarity with either the Black Athena hypothesis or with the arguments advanced against it. It will be essential reading for those who have been following this long-running debate, as well as for those just discovering this fascinating subject.

Table of Contents:
Preface Transcriptions and Phonetics Maps and Charts Introduction I Egyptology 1. Can We We Fair? A Reply to John Baines 2. Greece is Not Nubia: A Reply to David O’Connor II Classics 3. Who is Qualified to Write Greek History? A Reply to Lawrence A. Tritle 4. How Did the Egyptian Way of Death Reach Greece? A Reply to Emily Vermeule 5. Just Smoke and Mirrors? A Reply to Edith Hall III Linguistics 6. Ausnahmslosigkeit über Alles: A Reply to Jay H. Jasanoff and Alan Nussbaum IV Historiography 7. Accuracy and/or Coherence? A Reply to Robert Norton, Robert Palter, and Josine Blok 8. Passion and Politics: A Reply to Guy Rogers 9. The British Utilitarians, Imperialism, and the Fall of the Ancient Model V Science 10. Was There a Greek Scientific Miracle? A Reply to Robert Palter 11. Animadversions on the Origins of Western Science VI Recent Broadening Scholarship 12. Greek Art Without Egypt, Hamlet Without the Prince: A Review of Sarah Morris’s Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art 13. One or Several Revolutions? A Review of Walter Burkert’s The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age 14. There’s a Mountain in the Way: A Review of Martin West’s The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth 15. Phoenician Politics and Egyptian Justice in Ancient Greece VII. A Popularizing Effort 16. All Not Quiet on the Wellesley Front: A Review of Not Out of Africa Conclusion Notes Glossary Bibliography Index