THIS IS A WELL RESEARCHED AND VERY SCHOLARLY BOOK. IVAN VAN SERTIMA AS WELL AS THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS WORK HAVE PRODUCED MUCH INSIGHT ON AFRICAN WOMEN IN WORLD HITORY LIKE QUEEN NZINGA, THE CANDACE QUEENS, MAKEDA (QUEEN SHEBA, HATSHEPSUT AND MANY OTHERS. I FEEL THAT THIS WORK IS OF GREAT SIGNIFIGANCE AND SHOULD BE READ BY ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE ROLE OF AFRICAN WOMEN IN WORLD HISTORY.

Without being too lengthy, this book thoroughly covers the real and mythical images of the Black woman. It is a wonderful collection of essays from various authors such as the late, great John Henrik Clarke. Historical without afrocentricism. Balanced yet interesting. Do yourself a favor. Purchase the book and order tapes from the back of the book. Another fearless accomplishment by Van Sertima.

Ivan Van sertima may at time jump overboard,but He is often misunderstood by the people who try to label him a Afronazi. Van Sertima sets straight with actual proof Africans did excel in Science before the conquest of the Europeans. What the Europeans thought of as withdoctors were actually people that had great knowleadge of herbal medicine. The recent find in South Africa is that African bush willow has been shown to help with the treatment of cancer. What westerners don't tell you that there is plenty of herbs in African that has been dhown to fight such dieases as Aids. The problem is drug companies exploit cheifs and priest for their knowleadge of herbal medicine. The drug companies don't want common people to know about these herbs because it will make them go bankrupt.I recommend anyone reaching and exploring to shatter the myths of primitive Africans to read this book. Another thing this book explores is the evidence they found in kenya of an astronomical observatory. The book does show the lack of study in the scientific nature of indigenous African people. The book does not mention that bantus of Southern Africa have the ability of accupunture,and this ability according to records has been with man since he first evovled. I wish Sertima would have explored the indigenous calender system. I am glad however that he showed that secret socities in Africa comunicated with symbols andf sighns, and had a form of written language.

This was required reading for my Russian literature class because it is considered a classic. My favorite part of this book is the fact that it gives the reader a glimpse of what life was like for the average nobleman of the day...(in the 1850's) It has some interesting descriptions of Russian family life, the life of the peasantry and how the younger generation interacted with the older generation (hence the title, "Fathers and Sons" although the original Russian is called "Fathers and Children"). One of the main characters, Bazarov, is a self proclaimed nihilist who rejects all forms of authority, causing problems for the older generations (his parents & his friend's parents), but attracting the attention of the people of his (the younger) generation. This book has no real plot...it is merely the story of how one man brings his nihilist ideas into other peoples' lives & it gives accounts of everybody else's reactions to these nihilist ideas. It is an interesting book & a pretty quick read, but it can drag in places...especially if the reader is waiting for something interesting to happen. All in all, I believe this book is worth reading, if just to get a taste of "Old Russia", but if you are looking for an exciting "can't-put-it-down-sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-page-turner", you won't find it in this book.

It's easy to get lost in a sub-plot and believe that this book is about a sociopolitical clash between the old and the new, with the new being a nihilist forerunner of Russian revolution. But the book is extremely weak in the area of political discussion. As a political statement this book would be a dismal failure. Fortunately, the little bit of oversimplified politics that was tossed carelessly into the book is fairly irrelevant to the story.

This book is as good as anything ever produced in Russian literature, in the class of Solzhenitsyn, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. It's good because it's emotional.

For me, the main character is one who appears for a very short time and seems to be a minor character - Bazarov's father. His love of his son, and the relationship between Arkady and his father, are what the book is named after, and what it's about. I love the protest that Bazarov's father makes to God.

Two school graduates, Arkady and Bazarov, return home to their families after years away at school. Nihilist Bazarov clashes with Arkady's traditionalist uncle, but don't all generations clash a little over something. That's part of the relationship. Both young men fall in love with local women. I think Arkady and Katia would be great together. She would treat him like a king and lead him by the nose, and he would adore her his whole life and do whatever she told him to do.

In Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, as in most of Chekhov, nothing much really happens. People talk a lot and that's about it. Should be dull, right? But it isn't. The talk, and the characters revealed, reflect the profound changes that were being felt in Russian society at the end of the 19th Century; changes that would set the stage for much of what was to happen in the 20th Century. But more important to a modern reader, the ideas and the real life implication of those ideas are as current and relevant as when Turgenev wrote. Bazarov, the young 'nihilist', sounds just like the typical student rebel of the 60's (or of the Seattle WTO protests just recently). He has the arrogance and the innocence of idealistic youth. He is as believeable, and as moving in his ultimate hurt, as any young person today might be confronted with the limitations of idealism and the fickle tyranny of personal passion.

I loved this book when I first read it as a teenager and I enjoyed it even more on subsequent rereadings. It makes the world of 19th century Russia seem strangely familiar and it gives many a current political thread a grounding in meaningful history.

Tolstoy hailed Oblomov as a sublime work. Dostoevsky panned it as the work of a charlatan. Goncharov created one of the most intriguing characters in Russian literature. You might say Oblomov is the ultimate nihilist, but he doesn't know it. This is a man who has never grown up, until one day he meets a fine Russian beauty, and attempts to direct his life for the first time. The opening part of this book is first rate. Goncharov sets up his characters beautifully. "Oblomov's dream" is one of the finest pieces in Russian literature. But, like Oblomov himself, this book doesn't hold up well over the long haul. Goncharov's literary powers begin to diminish and the story becomes more diffuse without really illucidating the reader as to the lack of motivation in the character.

Fortunately, Oblomov is not without humor. The amusing relation between the protaganist and his manservant, Zahar, can be side-splitting at times. It is also quite poignant. As much as Oblomov seems to loathe his manservant, he can't bear to be without him. Zahar is the only link Oblomov has left to the family estate.

Oblomov does not stack up to the greats in Russian literature, but it is worthy of the second tier. However, it has been a book that has influenced later generations of writers, including Samuel Beckett, and has been made into a feature length movie by Nikita Mikhalkov.

For a fan of Russian literature, this book is a necessary read. Goncharov explores the problems with nobility and the caste system in a way that none of his predecessors did. He does this while largely capturing the beauty of the Russian style of writing. He offers detailed characters that each represents a different archetype. He shows you several social environments and the place each held within the system as well as what purpose they served. And mostly he accomplishes all of this while telling a very humorous and ammusing story.

I did feel that he strayed for about 100 pages in the middle. The story got away from being a Russian piece of literature and turned into a Jane Austen romance of types. I love Jane Austen and have no problem with these plot types in general, but it felt misplaced in this particular novel. For this reason, I would suggest that if you are not a fan of Russian literature yet, you introduce yourself into its world with a different piece of work, of which there are MANY.

What a fascinating novel. It's not totally unrelated to today's world, as it seems at a first glance... And there are so many connections between the author's life and the character of the story! It makes it even more interesting.

I would recommend this book primarily because it has even more pictures besides the Olmec heads, of other stone and terra cotta heads that are very African looking found in Latin America. These pictures alone will make you think that Van Sertima is on to something with this subject.

They Came Before Columbus, is a well researched, well thought out treatise that makes a compelling argument for a Black African presence in ancient America. Dr. Sertima comes to this conclusions without having to fabricate a convoluted construct such as the ones that many popular Eurocentric scholars have used in an attempt to continue to distort the history and the legacy of Black Africans and their descendants.

The broad noses, wooly hair (plate 31 b), and the full lips of the Olmec Negroid stone heads speak volumes about who was depicted in these artifacts. A simple process of elimination rules out any assumption that these heads are anything but depictions of Black Africans. For many, Dr. Sertima's theories are seen as a threat to mainstream history and anthropology. In time, many of the 18th and 19th century racist assumptions that persist to this day regarding Black Africans and their descendants will be relegated to the junk heap of history as scientific methodologies improve...

They Came Before Columbus, is a well researched, well thought out treatise that makes a compelling argument for a Black African presence in ancient America. Dr. Sertima comes to these conclusions without having to fabricate a convoluted construct such as the ones that many popular Eurocentric scholars have used in an attempt to continue to distort the history and the legacy of Black Africans and their descendants.

The broad noses, wooly hair (plate 31 b), and the full lips of the Olmec Negroid stone heads speak volumes about who was depicted in these artifacts. A simple process of elimination rules out any assumption that these heads are anything but depictions of Black Africans. For many, Dr. Sertima's theories are seen as a threat to mainstream history and anthropology. In time, many of the 18th and 19th century racist assumptions that persist to this day regarding Black Africans and their descendants will be relegated to the junk heap of history as scientific methodologies improve. --Kenneth B. Hollman

This is a great book that needed to be written. If you pay close attention you will notice alot of thease bad reviews are from the same person.

Like "Christian Identity" authors who seek to prove that "the Israelites" were "Aryans", the "Afrocentric" authors such as Ivan Van Sertima use a poor understanding and at-best tenuous grasp of historical fact to promote a distorted, racially-biased ahistorical narrative.

Unable to take pride in the actual social structures and culture of sub-Saharan Africa, a great deal of hollow effort is expended to manipulate data in such a manner as to promote a racial agenda.

Like those who applaud "Christian Identity" works, those who find this and other "Afro-centric" books praiseworthy have generally very little familiarity with historical sources, and/or a racially-oriented perception of their world which clouds their ability to process that information in a realistic way.

One need merely ask how it is, if Africa was so culturally advanced and at the root of European civilization, why it was, when the cultures again met as European explorers worked their way along the west African coast, that African culture was primitive in every respect, with absolutely no remnants technologically, architecturally, philosophically, etc. of an advanced culture (and this in spite of continued exchanges with Islam)?

I'd recommend by-passing racist claptrap altogether, regardless of which race is being presented as the superior, and to seek out actual historical sources.

"Snowden approached...all of the writings of the 'classical writers' of Greece and Rome for the actual references made to Africa and Africans...Ethiopians were the yardstick by which blackness was measured...European family crests showing black faces and coarse hair are accompanied frequently by such African derivatives as Mawr, Moore, Moorehead, Morris, Morrison, Mora, Maurice, Mareau, Moretti, Muir, Mohr, meaning a person from Mauritania [the Moors]. Sometimes the label is more indirect with names such as Schwartz, Schwartzkopf, and Schwartzmann, which are German for Black, Blackhead and Blackman...

...the physical evidence for a [black African] presence in Greece and Rome is compelling and extensive...including photographs of carvings, pottery, paintings and coins...it is only because the racism of the present is projected by today's authors into an ancient world that did not know racism as we do, that we have become so misinformed about Africans, and therefore misinformed about history."

from AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY EUROPE
"Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience"
A review by Asa G. Hilliard

And now it's time for a really good book.

Ivan Van Sertima, genius anthropologist and author of numerous critically acclaimed books including the international best- seller THEY CAME BEFORE COLUMBUS, is the mastermind behind this collection of essays. These essays on the largely untold history of people of African descent and their influence on Western Civilization are from authors who have been all but ignored or maligned by much of the scholarly classical intelligentsia for decades (and in some cases centuries). However, thanks to the changing times, their work and historical perspectives--made practically impregnable with mountains of corroborative archealogical, literary and anthropological evidence--are coming closer to becoming the new standard with each passing generation. If you're a person who has a passing interest in this thing that people have been labelling "Afrocentric" scholarship for generations now, even from a modern sociological perspective as opposed to historical, this book, in its quilt of various writers, disciplines, perspectives, styles and subjects looped together with the thematic umbrella of Africa's cultural centrality and preeminence in the ancient world and its influence on every Western world in history thereafter, is a great place to start. Just the same, I would say this is more a book for anyone who, instead of being merely turned on by the intellectual side of the politics of Multiculturalism and Identity in modern times (which, unfortunately, is just another subtle form of applied racism), has found a spark go off in their minds about the subject matter in particular and what it means to the modern human's soul.

With Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell and countless other figures of African descent in late 20th Century culture--not to mention Technology and Globilization's obliterating of the old plantation economic rules--America and Europe has had no need to hold so tightly onto the old rules of racist perspectives on other cultures to maintain a sense of intellectual order or economic/social supremacy. This has been evidenced by many aspects of today's world. Yet it is precisely this visible progress that makes such books as this, returning to a sober, balanced perspective on our actual past--our world history--MORE important, as opposed to not. There was a time--in fact, when most of the authors listed began writing--when such scholarship was taken as seriously as Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock on stage. Now times have changed such that the Aryan intellectual paradigms that still govern so much of the unconscious of Western scholarship (wihtout the majority of us even realizing to what degree it has shaped our perspective on society and ourselves) have lost their hold on the world enough to let the light of truth shine in.

There is so much information about the African contribution to world civilization that merely contemplating it and its spiritual/cultural implications will create a transformative hunger in you for knowledge that otherwise would have never materialized. This book is a great appetizer in that context--and a great introduction to more than two centuries of wonderful full course meals.

As is usually the case with these kinds of books, they need an editor to fix several typographical errors that are pretty unnecessary. That and some of the writings that come off a little bit too much like sermons as opposed to lessons keep this from being a five star book for me. But none of that will stop you from from being fed by it; the bibliographies of each writer's essay alone make the book worth its weight in gold.

With works as varied, provocative and mind-blowing as Martin Bernal's lecture on the actual evidence of Ancient pre-Hellenic Greece's colonization by ancient Egypt, English author/professor Edward Scobie's revealing of the history of Black African Popes in the early Catholic church, and many others, this will easily become an important book in the library of anyone who owns it, regardless of ethnic background. Enjoy.

No book can have such an impact as this one. The truth about ancient civilizations wgo entered the inferior areas of western-europe

I found this book to have a wealth of valuable information about the lives of many black leaders. I for one have come to associate scholarly integrity with Ivan Van Sertima's name, which contributed heavily to buying this book. However I found that impression tarnished by the obvious ommission of Elijah Muhammad from this book. I am continually seeing authors make a concerted attempt at writing him out of history, when the Nation of Islam under his charge, is on the history books having impacted Black people around the world very significantly. I could see if Malcolm X, who was included, was responsible for a significant portion of the Nation of Islam's affect on Blacks in America as has been incorrectly perpetuated for the last 15 years or so, but that is not accurate. If Van Sertima is going to group "Black Leaders" together who have impacted blacks, I am baffled as to why he would put leaders such as Hannibal, Shaka Zulu and Kwame Nkrumah and then put a student of a true leader, who, according to the same criteria the above men were chosen, is actually greater in stature. It is equal to omitting Martin Luther King in an effort to over-exaggerate the accomplishments of Jesse Jackson (MLK's student). Many other "so-called scholars" have made their efforts suspect with the same overt attempts. Perhaps if they would leave their emotions and political correctness out of their scholarship, the rest of us would take them seriously.

The topic of the book is extremely interesting. The authors write about African roots of Ancient Egyptean civilization and its influence on that of Ancient Greece.

The quality of articles varies. "Ancient Egyptians: The Dark Red Race Myth" by James Brunson and "Black Rulers of the Golden Age" by Legrand Clegg II, for example, are well researched and presented. Some other authors, like Cheikh Anta Diop and Wayne Chandler, provide scant evidence to support their ideas and make sweeping generalizations. Theophile Obengs seems to care less about describing African philosophy of the Pharaonic period than to asserting supremacy of Egyptian cosmogony over that of all other peoples.

Illustrations are black and white and of low quality. Brunson's article references figures, but the figures appear not to be numbered. Diop's notes are hard to interpret, maybe because the bibliography list is missing. Hierogliphs are so small that they are almost unreadable. It may be solely the editor's fault, though.

Overall, the book doesn't do justice to the topic. If you are interested in the subject, borrow it from a library, but dont' waste your money buying it.

It is obvious after reading this book that the author has not even heard Farrakhan speak or at least did not listen with an open mind.

I doubt that the author has even been to the mosque to hear any of the ministers.

If you have an opinion on the Nation of Islam, it is better to hear a speech first hand or talk directly to a member. Save your money by not buying this book.

Levinsohn, has an intelligent mind and a good knowledge of race relations in the United States, but she remains captive to a far-left mentality that distorts her understanding of this subject (poor black women in search of domestic work she terms "victims") as well as international politics (the Kuwait conflict she dubs "George Bush's curious war against Iraq"). Her ignorance sometimes causes her needlessly to speculate about well-known facts (such as the physical characteristics of the NOI founder, W. D. Fard, whose huge portrait has graced many of the movement's public events). She repeats old mistakes (that Farrakhan was expected to succeed Elijah Muhammad, that Malcolm X was more powerful than Elijah Muhammad) and initiates new ones (Farrakhan never mentions in speeches the old NOI goal of a separate black state, that the NOI does not follow up on its threats of violence).

Despite these shaky underpinnings, Levinsohn does offer insights to help decipher Farrakhan, showing the role of his family's West Indies background and explaining the "aura of madness" that surrounds him. She calls him "the most influential man in the black world" but also "one of the shrewdest opportunists in recent history," someone who "doesn't care" about such issues as job training and the problems of the black poor. Instead, his "interest is in building a great and strong Nation of Islam, with branches wherever there are black people."

Middle East Quarterly, December 1998