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

by Howard W. French

Hardcover, 2022

Status

Available

Barcode

10269

Collection

HS/Stone House Library

Genres

Publication

Liveright (2022), 544 pages

Description

"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"--… (more)

Awards

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Winner — Nonfiction — 2022)

Language

English

Original language

English

User reviews

LibraryThing member Shrike58

When I considered the subtitle of this book, my first thought was, well, that's rather ambitious. Did the work live up to expectation? Pretty much. To a large degree this is just a popularization of the concept of there being an "Atlantic World" that has come to dominate much of academic history

since the 1990s. What you get, as a reader, is about 50% history, 30% reportage and memoir, and 20% polemic. The issue is that this composition makes for something of a roundabout reading experience. However, I do think that French is quite justified in pushing a hard point that, as the Columbian Age fades away, it was built on the backs of African folks, and many people would desperately like to avoid that issue. Besides that the real guts of this work is built on the experience of Western empire-building ca. 1500-1700, particularly from the perspective of the Portuguese.

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LibraryThing member datrappert

This book basically changed my take on history in general. Why it has to come from a journalist rather than a historian is a sad commentary on historians. French makes an overwhelmingly convincing case for the centrality of African slavery in the economic success that vaulted Western nations to the

forefront of world power. The enormous profits from sugar plantations fueled the industrial revolution in England and elsewhere, for instance. French writes clearly and compellingly, although the book could use a bit better organization. His personal travels to some of the places that were so important in the past but have now been pretty much erased from mainstream history are fascinating. He also makes the important point that Africa was not just a stopping point as part of a more important quest to reach Asia, it was a prime destination on its own, first for the gold of the Gold Coast (present day Ghana) and later for the slaves that were essential for plantation agriculture, especially in the West Indies where European diseases had killed most of the native population. This book should be required reading for every history class in America.

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