Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War [Hardcover]

Revealing the central yet intentionally obliterated role of Africa in the creation of modernity, A tour de force, so much so that its almost impossible to write about it without lapsing into hyperbole.... French brings a journalists writing skills and eye to his subject, building a comprehensive and compelling argument that Africa and Africans were central to the construction of the modern world.... On top of meticulous research into primary and secondary sources, French builds the narrative with accounts of (and pictures from!) his travels to many important sites.... Because he comes to the story with a journalists eye  and, just as important, with a journalists ability to write in clear, compelling language that anyone can understand  Frenchs book is invaluable. Born in Blackness takes these narratives that have mostly been limited to scholars and graduate students and makes them accessible to a broad audience, from undergraduates assigned a few chapters for a class to people who will pick up a popular history book that looks interesting at their local bookstore.Born in Blackness is a compelling, impossible-to-forget read. This is the book for those who say they dont know anything about Africa and want to learn more. But those readers will quickly learn they have known many of these things all along. Frenchs gift is to show us how. This book is filled with countless eyeopeners& All history is, by definition, revisionist. In connecting the various dots, French is inviting us to reconsider what we understand about how we got here.... Painful and necessary& [an] infuriating and hugely enlightening book. The way we think about history is entirely wrong, says Howard W French at the start of this magnificent, powerful and absorbing book.... This is not a comfortable or comforting read, but it is beautifully done; a masterpiece even.... French writes with the elegance you would expect from a distinguished foreign correspondent, and with the passion of soló2