Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War | Howard W. French
6 posts | 3 read | 4 to read
Revealing the central yet intentionally obliterated role of Africa in the creation of modernity, Born in Blackness vitally reframes our understanding of world history. In a sweeping narrative that traverses 600 years, one that eloquently weaves precise historical detail with poignant personal reportage, Pulitzer Prize finalist Howard W. French retells the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in America, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “darkest” continent. Born in Blackness dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures whose stories have been repeatedly etiolated and erased over centuries, from unimaginably rich medieval African emperors who traded with Asia; to Kongo sovereigns who heroically battled seventeenth-century European powers; to ex-slaves who liberated Haitians from bondage. In doing so, French tells the story of gold, tobacco, sugar, and cotton—and the greatest “commodity” of all, the millions of people brought in chains from Africa to the New World, whose reclaimed histories fundamentally help explain our present world.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
quote
Purpleness
post image

29 likes1 stack add
blurb
Purpleness
post image

One of the main points of this book is that the rise of modernity was built on Africa and Africans. A very serious, multi-faceted, and well-written argument, but I keep being reminded of the British Things song from Horrible Histories, which makes a sort-of similar basic point in a vastly different tone (and complexity level). But seriously, I am enjoying the book, earworms aside. https://youtu.be/sb56cMQEflA?si=YpzOCmbGrxceB6m0

quote
Purpleness
post image
quote
Purpleness
post image

quote
Purpleness
post image

review
Berryfan
Pickpick

Excellent history. Presents the new and the known in an exciting and illuminating way. French brings together various economic and historical strands to tell a far more comprehensive story of Africa and Africans in the creation of the modern world. A must read!