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Summary: HISTORY TEACHER'S VITAL BOOK!
Review: This is a vital book for any teacher of history. Not only does it adroitly debunk the afrocentric movement, but it is a warning call for the dangerous direction many of my black brothers and sisters are taking us.The Nazi's under Hitler taught that all the accomplishments of history were by white people. The hardcore afrocentric movement is saying the same thing about blacks. This author reveals the foundation of this movement to be false, and in so doing has done us ALL a great service. She is obviously a brave and dedicated scholar. She should be commended.
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Summary: Finally the truth!!!
Review: This wonderful book makes a persuasive case proving that the current crop of Afro-centric history is non-sense. Dr. Lefkowitz is to be commended for her courage in tackling this topic.
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Summary: This book is extreamly short to refute over five books!!!
Review: I read this book almost one month ago after reading on line reviews. After reading this book I must say that the author admits that she is not an scholor of acient Egypt or the Rest of Africia. She states that she had a need to correct the misinformation that had been givin to the students at her university. She challanges the research by J.A Rogers and other authors without stating with evidence if they were wrong are not. The funny thing is she admits this very fact. For example her strongest argument is the Cleopartria argument that she did not have black blood. However that argument that J.A. Rogers makes is that Cleo recived her black hertige from her illigetamate grandmother ( a fact that is often excluded from history is that Cleo was illegatamate) Rogers did not state the Cleo's grandmother was a very dark Black Woman. Any way even if she was Cleo was only 25% black according to Rogers at the most. The author of this book must only consider people the complexion of Micheal Jordan Black. While historicaly in this Country it only takes one drop to make a person black. This book also states that greek culter was not stolen from Egyptian culture. While I agree with this to a point the greeks would be fools not to use egypts achievements and start form sratch. It ia a well known fact that The Father of History who was Greek and went to Egypt stated that the Egyptians were Black with wooly hair! If you have want to learn about history read this book and many others.
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Summary: The important lesson here is...
Review: Charlatans like Diop are indulged in academe out of a sense of "proactive" consensus-building. Academics seem to think that if they deprive this one huckster his pulpit, an even more extreme and destructive voice will come along. Hence Diop and others are smiled at, shrugged off, and not attacked, not on their merits, and not on their subtext. It's academic cowardice. It's understandable. In their incessant attempt to remain central and relevant to every minor and irrelevant political struggle that arises in our culture, scholars have given up their independence, their power to define what's relevant, and their ability to choose their battles. They become mired in cultural turf wars where the rules of fair play don't apply. Academics like Lefkowitz have little chance against the thugs that come out against them, and although that's a tragedy, it's hardly unexpected. Diversity and meritocracy aren't mutually exclusive ends if free thinkers, as individuals, stand up and say they won't permit another Kahane Chai, or another Thule Society, to arise within their ranks.
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Summary: Lefkowitz finishes off the fantasies of "Afrocentrism"
Review: Mary Lefkowitz, a distinguised scholar, systematically demolishes the racist fantasies of those who undermining historical studies with their "Afrocentric" ideologies. A must read for those who care about the truth!
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Summary: What is racism? Read on...
Review: By way of introduction, I am an unrepentant leftist. My political activities began long ago, during the Vietnam era, before many of this book's critics were even born. I've "moderated" in that, while I acknowledge that many individuals and groups have suffered because of institutional systems, I recognize that individuals have overcome those systems with talent, intelligence, personal effort and commitment, and various opportunities, most of them legal and ethical. My leftism has been tempered too by experience with leftists whose doctrine has become, "My enemy's enemy is my friend," i.e., if someone is an underdog, no matter how ludicrous his or her assertions, I still endear and endorse them. (I reflect on a black woman with three Ph.Ds who rants from coast to coast on racism--while I know countless non-blacks who have the ambition but haven't the money nor the "affirmative action" opportunities to obtain those credentials). Among the leading consequences of this foolishness is that we are, as a society, perhaps more divided--segregated--than ever before. I hold the left responsible for that because it has not earnestly evaluated WHICH "special interest groups" to take seriously and which limited resources to spend on them all. The right, in fact, is reaping great benefits from the divisions, watching the left nibble at itself, corroding just a little more every day with what has become known as identity politics. And that is among the ironies of the left: its status as its own worst enemy. The second page of that introduction is that I am still reluctant to pay attention to the words and, yes, doctrine of the political "right," some of whom have endorsed this book. Yet there is a school of "thought" that's even more destructive than that of the off-the-wall left, that of Afrocentrism. So, despite its rightist endorsement, because its author has done a fine job of researching the tenets and exposing the fallacies of that school, I hereby endorse the book. A review of contemporary leftist trash reveals that there are endorsements of these stupid Afrocentric fairy tales even in the ostensibly scholarly world of the academe. There is, alas, the whole realm of "multiculturalism" which claims that there is little common ground between men and women, between blacks and whites, between any self-proclaimed underdog and the allegedly powerful. Because the left tends to endorse the underdog, the absurdities of Afrocentrism are accepted despite lack of a smidgen of evidence to support it. So the victim industry continues unabated, and its spokespersons continue as gurus with all the evidence required of a fundamentalist preacher. Because the books subject matter is a little dry--it's obvious that Dr. Lefkowitz is well trained in discerning historical detail--it won't compete with pop novels that overflow the shelves, probably not even with the books it refutes. But the evidence is solid, a reaction to the unfounded claims of the Afrocentrist. The acceptance of the Afrocentrist crap is also solid evidence of the weak state of critical thinking, even among supposed scholars, no less on the left than on the right. But my biggest fear is that, like with the latest wave of "gender feminists," the justification of the Afrocentrist myths is not unlike that of the Nazis, the Stalinists, or, for that matter, the Ku Klux Klan, any extremist group that needs to sustain itself despite all evidence to contradict its reasons for existence. Many of the critics of the book who've attempted to refute it are defending their stands with reasoning I may have expected at best from a high school freshman who's trying to seem intelligent. The underlying, not even tacit assumption of the stuff is that the blacks are superior, that contemporary Western culture originated with the Egyptians (from whom the Greeks stole it) who were black, etc., etc. There was a movement among late 19th and early 20th century Germans who argued their superiority in a similar fashion, with no evidence beyond occult fads and Teutonic myths that were popular among the educated of that era. And we all know where the Germans went with that. Fortunately, there are many black scholars who reject this rubbish, despite the accusations that they've sold out to the white "establishment." So no black person is to take this as a criticism of black people, or anything African, Egyptian, or anything else. It is rather an endorsement of pursuit of evidence to support one's claims, and a refutation of PC fantasies backed with no evidence over the claims of their perpetrators. You are no less racist because you are a black racist, a white racist, or any other color or condition. Remember the civil rights movement? It was about EQUALITY!
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Summary: Perhaps facts aren't dead after all
Review: The debate as to the origins of Egypt and its ties to Greece and the rest of the Near East seems to have come full-circle at this point. Lefkowitz' analysis supports what is quite evident to academics, Greek civilization was influenced by the Near and Middle East, but it wasn't Egypt that supplied the Greeks with a code of laws (it was the Mesopotamians) and an alphabet (the Phoenicians) or the idea of multinational empire (the Indo-european speaking Persians of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes). Evidence as regards to Egypt's origins are based upon linguistic, architectural and archaeological finds, and the accounts of Egyptians and travellers through the area (including Greeks). Piecing the past together is difficult, but it is clear that most credible academics tend to ignore the "race" question as it is irrelevent (unless one is interested in nationalism or let's face it racism). Bernal theories haven't received much support amongst both Western and Egyptian scholars many of whom aren't even aware of his work or its relevence (or lack thereof). Prolonging this debate only fuels more ignorance. Egypt has a Middle Eastern past as its neighbors are Libya, Israel/Palestine, and Arabia as well as Sudan. Being on the same land-plate doesn't make one of a particular race as that would mean that people in Asia and Europe were identical as these two so-called continents are a single landmass, but are treated differently due to tradition at this point. North Africa's past lies with the Mediterranean and any visitor to the region can attest to this. It's time to put aside fantasy and try to dwell in reality. America isn't the center of the world and Americans regardless of their looks need to realize this.
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Summary: An excellent and scholarly critique of "Afrocentric" myth
Review: Prof. Lefkowitz, an expert on the Ancient Western World, its languages and its history, was finally moved by the intellectual dishonesty and bullying of so-called "Afro-centrists," who are really nothing more than black racists attempting to concoct a hate-filled theory of black racial superiority, to compose this sterling work of refutation. I urge the reader of honesty and integrity of whatever color to first read the illiterate, frenzied rants of the "Afro-centric" critiques on this site, and then contrast them with the graceful, balanced prose and arguments of Prof. Lefkowitz. I have no doubt that Prof. Lefkowitz' contentions will prevail in that reader's mind, because she has the Truth on her side.
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Summary: Can't belive it!
Review: I have just completed "Not Out of Africa" and must say that I am thoroughly amused by the effort Ms. Lefkowitz undertook to attempt to prove her point. When I first purchased the book, from a used book store, I was immediately aware of what the content of the book would comprise. The title alone, "Not Out of Africa - How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History", makes it very clear that her objective is not really to educate, but to trash the whole concept of Afrocentrism, which is a very valid concept. The copy I have has a Greek bust with an 'X' cap on it. How racist can you get! First off, Afrocentrism is not some Nazi like view of the world as Ms. Lefkowitz has inferred to a few times in her book. It is very funny to me how whenever white people that have an objection with some belief proposed by African Americans, such as Mr. George James, Min Louis Farrakhan, or Hon. Elijah Mohammed, their first line of discreditment is to associate them with Hitler. This is absurd because none of the previously mentioned gentleman ever tried to conquer the entire landmass of America with a war machine nor have any of them exterminated over six million people of any ethnic background. Afrocentrism is valid because as the globally oppressed group of people in this world, our view of things is both different and valid. A prime example of viewing historical events from another perspective is 1492-Present". For too long all people of this country have been presented with a historical record which paints a glowing picture of this country without detailed accounts of the horrors, atrocities, and absolute inhumanity that was part and parcel of the building of this "great" nation. Throughout Ms. Lefkowitz's book I observed countless assumptions, suppositions, and inferences to "prove" that the overwhelming body of evidence put forward by James, Bernal, Diop, Herodotus, Douglass, Von Wotheneau, Rogers, Clement, Diodorus, Manetho, Tacitus, ben Jochannan, etc.. is a pack of lies, distortions, or misunderstandings. I must say that Ms. Lefkowitz must be a remarkable individual, especially when she can tell people that lived 2,500 years before her what they actually thought they saw or knew. One thing that many Afrocentrists do that Ms. Lefkowitz does not, is to provide a wealth of pictorial evidence to support their notions. A picture is worth a thousand words. The only areas where I will say that I agree with Ms. Lefkowitz is that I do not think that Socrates was Black and also that Cleopatra was not Black ( but there is enough evidence to suggest that she may have been mulatto). Isn't it strange though that for the last 5 centuries, any visible trace of blackness, say 25%, has been enough to brand one as any one of the despicable names reserved only for "Blacks" and to receive commensurate treatment. Oh yes, let's not forget the 'one drop of black blood' rule. Why focus on Cleopatra when other pharoahs had much more impact than her. As a matter of fact why even focus so much attention on the Ptolemic era of Egypt when their short rule of 300 years had no additional contribution to make to an already well established culture of 3500+ years. It is funny that the "great" Grecian occupation of Egypt was comprised of foreign rulers that assimilated themselves into the existing Egyptian culture instead of forcing the indigenous population to conform to their superior form of government, religion, science and philosophy. Isn't that how it is normally done? (e.g. Imperial England). This book shows how desperate people are to hold onto things even when enough evidence is brought forth to make all agree that a second look at long held notions is in order. Theories about aliens developing Egyptian culture have invoked far less wrath then those of the Afrocentrists. I am a believer in reading all points of view, so I would recommend people reading this book for just that reason. I also think that readers would be well served to research with an open mind many of the Afrocentrists writings that are & II - Bernal; Stolen Legacy - James; Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization - Browder; The Bible Myth - Greenber
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Summary: Bebunking myths can make you unpopular with myth beleivers
Review: I first became aware of this book after reading "Why people Believe Weird Things" by M Shermer. After reading this book, it is clear that Afrocentrism does not have all its facts correct yet the majority of Lefkowitz's critics would prefer to proclaim rasicm as her puropse rather than prove their own assertions with relevant facts - an indicator of who's loosing the debate. Unlike other reviewers, I don't claim Lefkowitz is trying to preserve "euro-racism" but rather that she takes a hard look at some of the claims being made by Afrocentrism teachings. Doing this effectivly has made her very unpopular in the Afrocentrism community, but their problem is really with the strength of evidence backing her assertions in compairison to their own. The book does have some minor flaws and is slow in portions as any analytical review can be. However the book is still good and well worth reading for anyone interested in a reasonable discussion to the other side of Afrocentrism teachings.
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