Stolen Legacy

Rating:
Summary: More important for the questions it raises than answers
Review: Any book that can render this kind of reaction by intellectuals and regular folk alike should be on everyone's reading list. Even in today's polemical culture of complaint, where people hide bad art and cheap sensational ideas behind political/ideological fads or automatic public reactions to their support or refutation, one must look at the thought provoking questions that this book arises- and the near automatic emotions that go with them. I read this book several years ago in college. Though I didn't particularly like the preachy style, it successfully started me on an intellectual journey through a plethora of authors of the past two centuries and a spiritual awakening. This book, I am reminded, has such power, because it raises more uncomfortable questions than it answers. In the spirit of such work, the raison detre of all scholarship, I'd like to ask all others past, present and future who have or plan to review this book: have you read [e-mail]'s review of this yet? Were you aware of the facts he brings to light and refers to- more importantly, the intellectual paradigms he used to formulate his opinions, as those are (linguistics specifically)part and parcel of the methods, principles and practices of all Western scholars? Why do you think all architecture schools across all of Western civilization through the centuries to today begin their students' studies with the Pyramids? Have you seen the pyramids of the Sudan and Nubia, some predating those of Giza, recently unearthed by German archaeological teams? And what do you think our Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, et al) would have thought of such a work (and think of the back of the dollar bill before you answer)?

Rating:
Summary: An important book, regardless of its faults
Review: Any book that can render this kind of reaction by intellectuals and regular folk alike should be on everyone's reading list. In today's culture of complaint, people hide bad art and cheap sensational ideas behind political/ideological fads and the automatic public reactions to their support or refutation all the time. Yet even with a healthy skepticism firmly in place, one must look at the thought provoking questions that this book demands are asked--and the near automatic visceral emotions that seem to go with them.

I read this book several years ago in college. Though I didn't particularly like the preachy style, or much of the rhetoric seemingly impossible to prove scientifically, it successfully started me on an intellectual journey through a plethora of Egyptological authors of the past two centuries and a spiritual awakening. This book, I am reminded, has such power, because it raises more uncomfortable questions than it answers.

Before or even after an opinion of this work has become set in stone in one's mind (usually inspired by an emotional knee-jerk reaction, as if the book is little more than a political metaphor and not an attempt to rediscover the actual ancient world) one must ask themselves, as I was again forced to upon re-reading it:

Have you actually READ the book?

Have you read [e-mail]'s review of this yet (June 29, 1998)? Were you aware of the facts he brings to light and refers to- more importantly, the intellectual paradigms he used to formulate his opinions, as those are (linguistics specifically)part and parcel of the methods, principles and practices of all Western scholars?

Why do you think all architecture schools across all of Western civilization throughout the centuries to today begin their students' studies with the Pyramids?

Have you seen the pyramids of the Sudan and Nubia, some predating those of Giza, recently unearthed by German archaeological teams?

And what do you think our Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, et al) would have thought of such a work (and think of the back of the dollar bill before you answer)?

This book, even with the sermon-like fault of its structure (which says as much about when it was written--and what it took for someone with these kinds of ideas to be published at the time--as the author) remains powerful and influential because of the degree to which it wrestles and answers these kinds of questions. STOLEN LAGACY has its faults, but its ability to make you think, whether you want to or not, isn't one of them.

Definitiely worth reading; also worth owning...and continually argued about.

Rating:
Summary: African Philosophy
Review: This book is a must read !!!!!!!!! The only minor weakness in the book is its preachy style. Nevertheless, this book is great for high school research papers and accurate knowledge of black (African) civilization.

Rating:
Summary: balck spark, white fire
Review: i didn't like this book one bit. the auther should try reading a book called black spark white fire written by richard poe. richard poe is an outstanding author and wrote a masterpiece. Your book was just too weak and not strong enough to tell us your point of writing this book, Mr. george g.m. james!

Rating:
Summary: the stolen legacy...
Review: is a tale of the money i had stolen from me that i spent to read this crazy black propaganda. i'm american (of mexican extraction, but i would never call myself mexican-american...i'm proud to be just american), so keep your hate away from me you psycho history-rewriters.
this book is true insanity, and you are either insane or insanely stupid if you think it has any merit.
or if you believe in this book, wait until my book comes out: 'stolen legacy, how the mexicans invented everything and are secretly running the world and nobody knows'

Rating:
Summary: Great Piece Of History
Review: I read this book about twenty-five years ago and I still use it as a reference book..One thing that people don't realize about this book is that in order to truly understand it you must get a true explanation from a Black historian..This may take some doing, but the book is filled with so much knowledge that the average person may not be able to digest it all..However, the racists liars of Mr. James's time realized the true history that the book brought out , and they killed him because of it..If you care about history at all from a vision of truth , then this book is a must read for you...

Rating:
Summary: SETTLE DOWN LITTLE NEANDERTHAL
Review: Please Please don't get bent out of shape our caucazoid children, your parents are starting to wake up and realize who they are. Don't get mad because the slave is realizing he is a slave to your melanin lacking system of government around the world. Mr. James might not be exactly historically correct in his findings, but he did make a bunch of sound asleep slaves wake up and read other scholarly works by Walter Williams, Yosef Ben Jochanon, Anthony Browder etc... We need to ask was there any socrates, aristotle, jesus, and many other that existed in phsical form. Rememeber one of the main practices of the Willie lynch letter was to make the slave think a life of animal in servitude was a way of life, but what my caucazoid children tend to misundertand is that, nomatter what nature tends to return to the way. Including the caucazoid race itself that's the reason behiind your recessive genes and why your is going by any means neccesary to survive. HOTEP!!

Rating:
Summary: QUESTIONS RAISED
Review: HOW could Aristotle write as many books contributed to him in one lifetime? (one of the questions raised in the text).

e-mail me if anyone has the answer.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: Contrary to the opinions of the reviewer who calls himself "classics lover" (after reading his review, it should be more along the lines of "fantasy lover") this book is a Masterpiece that needs to be read by any serious student of true, historical fact.
First of all, contrary to "classics lover" opinion, ancient Egypt was founded, cultivated and reached it's peak as a civilizing empire by aBLACK, AFRIKAN PEOPLE. Their own documents, in their own words say as much and while in the later (and by the way declining) years of the empire, they did intermingle with other races of peoples that they had conquered.
As for the "Mystery System" to place the founding of this system in 18th century France is to show one's ignorance in full display & spectacle. If you were to do any real and detailed study into the mystery systems of the world such as the Free Masons, Kabalists, etc... you will find that their beliefs, structures and practices could be traced, as many of them do, back to the courts of the Pharoh's. Make no mistake, they have perverted most of the original meaning, but the origin is still found in Egypt. Concerning his statement that every scholar of history has stated and never denied that greece was influenced by Egypt is itself ludicrous. To this day, so called "scholars" are dening that fact, and by the way, isn't it funny how you find not one scholar in greece worthy of mentioning until after the travels and conquests of Alexander the Great in particular in Egypt, then all of a sudden here comes all of these incredible scholars and books and of course the library of Alexandria containing all of this wisdom. Why where these things not founded in greece prior to this time period if the greeks where really so scholarly?
As far as the ridiculous comment: not only did the greek plagiarize them, but that miracolously, this plagiarism caused the egyptians to instantly forget all of the plagiarized material and not make any new records of it! You must remember that unlike Afrika which has historically had a respect and thirst for the both the obtaining, recording and sharing of knowledge, europeans (see rome) have always had just as much a thirst for destroying and rewriting any and all records that didn't line up with their propaganda which is exactly what happened to the records of ancient Egypt.
It is clear that "classics lover" has had a hard time as most do when confronted with something that completely destroys the long held myths that they have been taught. If you are a true student who will take the time to study all the facts, then you will see that Dr. James did his homework when he put this book together and begin to appreciate the wonderful and rich tradition that is ancient Egypt, a glorious Afrikan Empire.

Rating:
Summary: It is the book that began it all...
Review: Anti-Afrocentrists love to label classic african centered works as "psuedo-scientific" because of their flaws. No science is completely accurate. If it were a way of discovering a complete set of knowledge without making mistakes, then there would be no need for science. So the term "psuedo-science" is retarded.

Although this book definitely has flaws, it is the beginning of a discovery of flaws within Eurocentric history. While there are flaws in that which George G. M. James called "The mystery system" in Egypt, he brought up very valid points that anti-Afrocentrists such as Mary Leftkowitz choose to skip over when attacking the flaws of the book, such as why the so-called "Athenian Philosophers" were hated by the Greek general public.

What is more amazing is that the basis of James' theories have been verified by world reknown mathemeticians such as Claudia Zaslavsky and Dr. Paulus Gerdes (both whites), who add to Afrocentric historical perspectives from their mathematical backgrounds.

I encourage people to read this, knowing that it is only one chip of rock off Mt. Everest.

Gary C. Booker
http://garybooker.cjb.net