A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index (History of Us)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Easy to read, concise information
  • Makes reading about American History fun
  • 90% twaddle or fluff, 10% fact and not very well written
  • review for the sourcebook A History of US
  • A supplemental collection of documents that shaped America
A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index (History of Us)
Oxford University Press
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195153405

Book Description

Designed to accompany Joy Hakim's ten-volume A History of US or as a stand-alone reference, this collection of great American documents is ideal for all students of American history. Filled with primary sources, the Sourcebook and Index traces the gradual unfolding of ideas of freedom in America through letters, declarations, proclamations, court decisions, speeches, laws, acts, the Constitution, and other writings. Updated with a complete listing of the constitutional amendments and a listing of the presidents with key information about them, the Sourcebook and Index is arranged chronologically, beginning with the Magna Carta and ending with Ronald Reagan's 1988 speech at Moscow State University. Each document is introduced and placed in historical context. Difficult vocabulary is defined in the margins along with explanatory notes and commentary that aids in understanding the meaning and historical importance of each document. Neatly cross-referenced with key sections of A History of US, the Sourcebook and Index is an easy-to-use collection of the documents most essential to understanding American history. Included are some of the many voices whose words have moved the nation: Ben Franklin, Tom Paine, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, St. John de Crevecoeur, George Washington, Sagoyewatha, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Chief Joseph, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Easy to read, concise information.......2007-05-12

These books are indispensible to any family that enjoys a great home library. We are a homeschooling family & love to access the wide array of information available. The Sourcebook & Index is a must-have companion to all the other 10 books in this set. It is just that; an index of every topic covered & where to find it. Follow the guides to study the wealth of info, or just use it randomly to encourage more exploration on any US History subject.

5 out of 5 stars Makes reading about American History fun.......2006-11-10

This entire series of books is wonderful. The author's style of writing is almost whimsical and makes reading about American history so interesting, you don't want to put the book down. The best books on American history I've seen yet!

1 out of 5 stars 90% twaddle or fluff, 10% fact and not very well written.......2006-08-30

We just completed the first three books in this ten-book series and are even more frustrated. I can only wonder if any of the reviewers who recommended these books actually read them for content. While reviewers have described her writing as 'telling a story', it is actually rambling on and on over minutia that is unimportant while leaving the truly important parts of history barely written of. Homeschoolers pay for vast collections of educational books and, as a group, we have high standards for what is worth paying $200 for. This series isn't even worth $20.

Time is valuable and the nine months we have spent on the first three volumes was 90% wasted. Hakim jumps from one part of a story to a different part of another story and then returns as though this is part of a natural thought process--it's not. She includes minute details about the way someone's maid or valet dressed and will ramble on for five pages regarding their footwear. While she may be interested in that twaddle, we are not. Most of the chapters are organized around what pictures she found fascinating, rather than actual history. Chapter after chapter, we read about people I would never waste my time on and the comings and goings of everything in their household, from what they ate, to how each person looked in appearance, to (again) their footwear. Aside from an obvious foot fetish, Hakim has nothing substantial to offer and rambles on, book after book, into nothingness. We were saddened to find many famous events given only one sentence (e.g. Shay's Rebellion), while many pages were devoted to insignificance (e.g. over 40 pages per book devoted to large pictures of insignifcant drawings).

The last detail that made this series so disappointing was the obvious slant of Hakim's writing--slamming one framer, while making another out to be a saint. Like those who start a sentence with the words "I'm not prejudice, but...", Hakim starts her books with the preface that she is depicting what happened with no prejudice toward any belief system--not. As homeschoolers, we have learned to read with a critical eye those words that are used to incite an emotion--wasted, hated, dictated, etc.--Hakim uses them much too frequently. Hate words should be removed from history books, they just don't belong.

My children have asked me to add that what they dislike most about this book is that Hakim's definitions are so incredibly inaccurate. Just today, she defined the word paradox so poorly that we had to grab the dictionary to read the correct definition. Oxford should hire a better fact-checker.

5 out of 5 stars review for the sourcebook A History of US.......2005-10-19

This is an amazing book. I think it is geared for older childern 5th-6th grade and up. It has writings in it that I have never seen. It is very though.

5 out of 5 stars A supplemental collection of documents that shaped America.......2003-08-14

In an idealized world, or more particularly a perfect classroom, it would be nice if there was a CD-Rom that came along with each set of history textbooks for a classroom that would contain all sorts of wonderful study guides for teachers along with a collection of documents from American history that could easily be printed and then copies created for the students. The current alternative is a volume such as this "Sourcebook and Index," compiled by Byron Hollinshead with introductory notes by Steven Mintz as a supplement to Joy Hakim's 10-volume A History of US series. Of course, this volume also works as a stand-along reference, providing a collection of great American documents, most of which are touched upon in your standard American history textbook. I have a strong affinity for primary documents, and this collection provides almost 100 of them in this collection of letters, declarations, proclamations, court decisions, laws, acts, speeches, the Constitution, and other writings, all arranged chronologically from "Magna Carta" through Ronald Reagan's 1988 speech at Moscow State University. The goal is to illuminate the experience of the diverse groups that make up American society, so that in addition to influential Presidential speeches that are scattered throughout this volume young readers will also find the voices and experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, women, and many other groups represented as well.

This sourcebook presents excerpts from many of the documents recommended on state frameworks and that support the National History Standards. At the beginning of each excerpt there is a note on where you can find the document or topic discussed in the series (e.g., John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address does with Chapter 17, Book 10, "All the People"), a headnote that provides background on the document and discusses why it is important, the text if the document, and definitions in the margins that will help readers understand unfamiliar word or unusual meanings as well as identifying historical figures mentioned in the documents. I especially appreciate the later because having co-edited a collection of great speeches I was quite proud of the annotations we provided and Hollinshead and Mintz are doing something similar here. The focus is on helping young readers tease out a document's assumptions, uncover its meaning, and assess its historical significance. For example, there are only two lines from "Magna Carta" but the analysis emphasizes the ideas of preserving rights, obeying the law of the land, and extending rights to all citizens.

By devoting an entire volume to such documents Hakim is able to get well beyond the few documents of state that often end up in the back of an American history textbook (i.e., the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.). Here you will find the Articles of Confederation, the Homestead Act, and the Civil Rights Act. The Gettysburg Address is short enough to make its way into most textbooks but students will also find words from Lincoln's "House Divided," debate with Stephen Douglas, and Second Inaugural Address. When the authors works in John Marshall Harlan's dissenting opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson you know that they have done their homework and gone beyond the obvious possibilities. There are easily a dozen other impressive additions, from John C. Calhoun's speech on the Compromise of 1850 and Franklin D. Roosevelt's message to Congress on "The Four Freedoms" to Thomas Jefferson's "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom" and Martin Luther King, Jr's letter from Birmingham City Jail.

Among the reasons why I would prefer a CD-Rom to a book in this matter is that you would not only be able to include many more documents, but you would also be able to provide them in their entirety. Even a relatively short speech such as Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" is edited (and there is no reason you cannot either provide both complete and edited versions of the longer works and/or allow teachers to edit them themselves before making copies). However, I am well aware that my preference for primary documents may well be greater than your average student of American history. Even if you are not using Hakim's series, American history teachers can certainly use this volume to help expose their students to some of the most powerful words in our nation's history.
A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index (A History of Us)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • History the fun way
A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index (A History of Us)
Joy Hakim
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195189035

Book Description

Designed to accompany Joy Hakim's ten volume A History of US or as a stand alone reference, this collection of great American documents is ideal for all students of American history. Filled with primary sources, the Sourcebook and Index traces the gradual unfolding of ideas of freedom in America through letters, declarations, proclamations, court decisions, speeches, laws, acts, the Constitution, and other writings.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars History the fun way.......2007-03-09

These books will have all ages learning or reviewing history with fascination as if reading a good novel. Joy Hakim informs with a humorous, plain-spoken manner that will keep you glued to the pages. My kids and I are enchanted by Hakim's flowing presentation and always read more of her information than we need for the sake of homework.
A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index: Documents that Shaped the American Nation (Hakim, Joy. History of Us (1999), Bk. 11,)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • A supplemental collection of documents that shaped America
A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index: Documents that Shaped the American Nation (Hakim, Joy. History of Us (1999), Bk. 11,)
Oxford University Press
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

GeneralGeneral | United States | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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  4. A History of US: Book 5: Liberty for All? 1820-1860 (History of Us) A History of US: Book 5: Liberty for All? 1820-1860 (History of Us)
  5. A History of US: Vol 10, All the People (A History of Us) A History of US: Vol 10, All the People (A History of Us)

ASIN: 0195127722

Book Description

Features a complete index and vocabulary to the series, as well as a collection of 94 primary sources relating the U.S. history that will make every history lover ecstatic. This sourcebook traces the development of the fundamental ideals on which our society is based: free speech and a free press, religious toleration, due process of law, racial equality, and government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Beginning with the Magna Carta and concluding with a speech delivered by President Ronald Reagan at Moscow State University in 1988--celebrating the spread of American ideals of freedom at the end of the Cold War--this sourcebook allows students to analyze the charter documents of American freedom. These include our society's basic constitutional documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, landmark Supreme Court decisions from Marbury v. Madison to the Pentagon Papers case, the most influential presidential addresses, and documents illuminating the experience of the diverse groups that make up our society.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A supplemental collection of documents that shaped America.......2003-08-14

In an idealized world, or more particularly a perfect classroom, it would be nice if there was a CD-Rom that came along with each set of history textbooks for a classroom that would contain all sorts of wonderful study guides for teachers along with a collection of documents from American history that could easily be printed and then copies created for the students. The current alternative is a volume such as this "Sourcebook and Index," compiled by Byron Hollinshead with introductory notes by Steven Mintz as a supplement to Joy Hakim's 10-volume A History of US series. Of course, this volume also works as a stand-along reference, providing a collection of great American documents, most of which are touched upon in your standard American history textbook. I have a strong affinity for primary documents, and this collection provides almost 100 of them in this collection of letters, declarations, proclamations, court decisions, laws, acts, speeches, the Constitution, and other writings, all arranged chronologically from "Magna Carta" through Ronald Reagan's 1988 speech at Moscow State University. The goal is to illuminate the experience of the diverse groups that make up American society, so that in addition to influential Presidential speeches that are scattered throughout this volume young readers will also find the voices and experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, women, and many other groups represented as well.

This sourcebook presents excerpts from many of the documents recommended on state frameworks and that support the National History Standards. At the beginning of each excerpt there is a note on where you can find the document or topic discussed in the series (e.g., John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address does with Chapter 17, Book 10, "All the People"), a headnote that provides background on the document and discusses why it is important, the text if the document, and definitions in the margins that will help readers understand unfamiliar word or unusual meanings as well as identifying historical figures mentioned in the documents. I especially appreciate the later because having co-edited a collection of great speeches I was quite proud of the annotations we provided and Hollinshead and Mintz are doing something similar here. The focus is on helping young readers tease out a document's assumptions, uncover its meaning, and assess its historical significance. For example, there are only two lines from "Magna Carta" but the analysis emphasizes the ideas of preserving rights, obeying the law of the land, and extending rights to all citizens.

By devoting an entire volume to such documents Hakim is able to get well beyond the few documents of state that often end up in the back of an American history textbook (i.e., the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.). Here you will find the Articles of Confederation, the Homestead Act, and the Civil Rights Act. The Gettysburg Address is short enough to make its way into most textbooks but students will also find words from Lincoln's "House Divided," debate with Stephen Douglas, and Second Inaugural Address. When the authors works in John Marshall Harlan's dissenting opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson you know that they have done their homework and gone beyond the obvious possibilities. There are easily a dozen other impressive additions, from John C. Calhoun's speech on the Compromise of 1850 and Franklin D. Roosevelt's message to Congress on "The Four Freedoms" to Thomas Jefferson's "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom" and Martin Luther King, Jr's letter from Birmingham City Jail.

Among the reasons why I would prefer a CD-Rom to a book in this matter is that you would not only be able to include many more documents, but you would also be able to provide them in their entirety. Even a relatively short speech such as Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" is edited (and there is no reason you cannot either provide both complete and edited versions of the longer works and/or allow teachers to edit them themselves before making copies). However, I am well aware that my preference for primary documents may well be greater than your average student of American history. Even if you are not using Hakim's series, American history teachers can certainly use this volume to help expose their students to some of the most powerful words in our nation's history.
HISTORY OF US BOOK 11 SOURCEBOOK & INDEX 3E HUS
Average customer rating: Not rated
    HISTORY OF US BOOK 11 SOURCEBOOK & INDEX 3E HUS
    HAKIM
    Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback
    ASIN: B000OKNVPM
    A History of Us: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      A History of Us: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index
      Joy Hakim
      Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback
      ASIN: B000OKVJJC
      A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index (History of Us)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index (History of Us)
        Oxford University Press
        Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback
        ASIN: B000OKLQ86
        A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index: Documents that Shaped the American Nation (Hakim, Joy. History of Us (1999), Bk
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          A History of US: Book 11: Sourcebook and Index: Documents that Shaped the American Nation (Hakim, Joy. History of Us (1999), Bk
          Oxford University Press
          Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback
          ASIN: B000OKA4Y8

          Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes
          Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
          • The narcissistic romance of modern academia and ITS mythical past and imagined homes needs to be effectively dismantled
          • Afrocentric Classic
          • Laughable! Entirely Laughable!
          • A Devastating Critique
          • biased and racist
          Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes
          Stephen Howe
          Manufacturer: Verso
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover

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          ASIN: 1859848737

          Book Description

          A vigorous challenge to the Afrocentric rewriting of African history. For centuries, racist, colonial and Eurocentric bias has blocked or distorted knowledge of Africans, their histories and cultures. The challenge to that bias has been one of the greatest intellectual transformations of the late twentieth century. But alongside this challenge has arisen a counter mythology, proclaiming the innate superiority of African-descended peoples. In this provocative study, Stephen Howe powerfully argues that this Afrocentric movement is guilty of reproducing all the central features of the outmoded Euro-racist scholarship. Offering a mostly fictional history of Africa and its diaspora, centered on bizarre ideas about ancient Egypt, Howe argues that Afrocentrism is a symptom of, rather than a cure for, desperate political and economic problems. In Afrocentrism, Howe traces the sources and ancestries of the movement, and closely analyses the writings of its leading proponents including Molefi Asante and the legendary Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop. Martin Bernal's contribution is also assessed. Hard-hitting yet subtle and scholarly in its appraisal of Afrocentric ideas, and based on wide-ranging research in the histories both of Afro-America and of Africa itself, Afrocentrism not only demolishes the mythical "history" taught by black ultra-nationalists but suggests paths towards a true historical consciousness of Africa and its diaspora.

          Customer Reviews:

          2 out of 5 stars The narcissistic romance of modern academia and ITS mythical past and imagined homes needs to be effectively dismantled.......2006-06-02

          "Students of the modern world may think it is a matter of indifference whether or not Aristotle stole his philosophy from Egypt. They may believe that even if the story is not true, it can be used to serve a positive purpose. But the question, and many others like it, should be a matter of serious concern to everyone, because if you assert that he did steal his philosophy, you are prepared to ignore or to conceal a substantial body of historical evidence that proves the contrary. Once you start doing that, you can have no scientific or even social-scientific discourse, nor can you have a community, or a university."

          Mary Lefkowitz
          NOT OUT OF AFRICA

          "...To be more exact I should say that the criticism [against his thesis of the measurement principles of ancient Greece originating in the more ancient Egyptian and Assyrian civilizations] was epistemological: it was a matter of deciding whether the Greeks or any other human beings could have thought the way I described...In this field [Metrology: the scientific study of ancient measures] ONE CAN RELY ON EVIDENCE MORE RELIABLE THAN THAT USUALLY AVAILABLE IN ANCIENT SCHOLARSHIP, and as a result there is substantial agreement among specialists about all essential points; BUT OTHER SCHOLARS REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE EVIDENCE BECAUSE THESE DO NOT SUIT THEIR WAY OF THINKING."

          Dr. Livio Stecchini, MIT
          THE HISTORY OF MEASURES
          (emphasis mine)


          "...Here's a story which is really tragic. How many of you know about the book by Joan Peters...FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL? It was a big scholarly-looking book with lots of footnotes, which purported to show that the Palestinians were all recent immigrants [i.e. to the Jewish-settled areas of the former Palestine, during the British mandate years of 1920 to 1948]...it got literally hundreds of rave reviews, and no negative reviews...there was all kinds of demographic analysis in it...a big professor of demography at the University of Chicago [Philip M. Hauser] authenticated it. Well, one graduate student at Princeton...Norman Finkelstein, started reading through the book...and he started checking the references--and it turned out that the whole thing was a hoax...probably put together by some intelligence agency.... Well, Finkelstein wrote up a short paper of just preliminary findings...and he sent it around to I think thirty people who were interested in the topic, scholars in the field and so on, saying: "Here's what I've found in this book, do you think it's worth pursuing?" Well, he got back [only] one answer, from me. I told him, yeah, I think it's an interesting topic, but I warned him, if you follow this, you're...going to expose the American intellectual community as a gang of frauds, and they are not going to like it, and they're going to destroy you. Well, he didn't believe me... Finkelstein's very persistent: he took a summer off and sat in the New York Public Library, where he went through every single reference in the book--and he found a record of fraud that you cannot believe... Meanwhile his professors--this is Princeton University, supposed to be a serious place--stopped talking to him: they wouldn't make appointments with him, they wouldn't read his papers, he basically had to quit the program... Very promising scholar--if he'd done what he was told, he would have gone on and right now he'd be a professor somewhere at some big university. That's a lot better than a death squad, it's true...but those are the techniques of control that are around..."

          Noam Chomsky
          Excerpt from
          "The Fate of an Honest Intellectual"
          UNDERSTANDING POWER

          "A SCIENTIFIC revolution, according to Kuhn [the scientist/linguist author of THE THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS], is not simply an addition to pre-existing knowledge. It is, within any field, 'a reconstruction of the field from new fundamentals'; a complete demolition of an old theoretical and conceptual structure and its replacement by a new one based on entirely different aims and premises. The old paradigm...attacked from the outside...cannot be defeated on the basis of its own rules for, as we have seen...these rules are not only inadequate to solve new problems which have begun to arise--THEY ACTUALLY PRECLUDE ANY DISCUSSION OF THESE PROBLEMS AT ALL."

          Dr. Chris Knight, London
          From BLOOD RELATIONS:
          MENSTRUATION AND THE ORIGINS OF CULTURE

          To date no reviewer I have seen, regardless of their inclination to believe or disbelieve the evidence and arguments of Afrocentric scholars, have critically examined the subtext of Stephen Howe's argument. Only when the unstated but implied idea that the University system is a holy temple, where myth and outright lies have never been propagated for political reasons throughout Europe or America's history, is uncritically accepted (making "lies" today a symptom of "politically correct" postmodernism), can the BIRTH OF A NATION racist mythology propelling his thesis enter one's unconscious undetected. Like Lefkowitz' argument in NOT OUT OF AFRICA, his is essentially as follows: the pure white virginal universities of America are being attacked by Raging Black Male Anthropologists--whose political passion (aka sexual potency) is far stronger than their source material and pedagogical methodology (aka intellect & character). Therefore they must be saved by the unapologetically reactionary intellectuals of Classicism who will rise up and defend their honor, despite, like the Ku Klux Klan, being misunderstood by the general public as doing (or saying) something wrong.

          What happens if we start from a different subtext, much more easily proven to be reality: that the University system has always been a filthy whore, whose innocence, if it ever existed, was incestuously stripped from it by the very political and capitalist institutions supporting it in its childhood? That perspective would demand a critical look at both the Afrocentrists who prove his point AND the ones that upset the applecart of his entire thesis with actual science--the ones he purposely never mentions in the book.

          Read Chris Knight's BLOOD RELATIONS for a paradigm shifting anthropological theory that unexpectedly validates the Afrocentric persepective. Innovative science always trumps biased historiography.

          5 out of 5 stars Afrocentric Classic.......2004-06-23

          The truth that is so hard to hear, delivered with precision and true scholarship. Easily debunks the pseudohistoric cult of afrocentrism.

          1 out of 5 stars Laughable! Entirely Laughable!.......2004-03-27

          So this is the book from Howe?

          I was absolutely shocked!!! The book is a REVIEW!!! It contains no new theories, paradigms or models. It is merely an exercise in Polemic and ridicule - One does not need to go to school to write a book like this! One only needs to be devoted to a Western framework!

          African myths? Ha! They still havent been able to denounce the Afrocentric thesis - Lefkowitz lost all her arguments (including the one with J.H Clarke) - this book is merely something to comfort the bruised western ego!!!

          These are the facts:
          1. If any African Americans want to identify with Africa on the basis of Historicity - how is that anybody's problem?

          2. If these African Americans devote themselves to the study and research and propagation of what they see to be their homeland - whose problem is that?

          3. As for the parroted examples he gave as debunkings of Afrocentrism - they are nothing new! Its the same old story white people have been telling for 200 years and it still is LUDICROUS!

          There are so many idiocies contained in Howes book but I want to address one that particularly tickled my fancy -

          "It is not possible to decide if Egypt was black or white" "Egypt was neither black nor white"

          So what was Egypt then? Brown? He says that the Egyptians were merely Egyptians! What nonsense! So are the Yoruba merely Yoruba? NO - they are affixed within the global frameworks as blacks. Are the Zulus merely Zulus and neither black nor white? NO. So whats this about the Egyptians being neither black nor white? Are the Scots, the Irish, the Danes neither black nor white? - Howes particular assertion at this point is what revealed to me that his main agenda was not to promote the so-called non-racial aspect of the Egyptians but to merely deny their possibility of being black.

          This one will be debunked in time also - no doubt about that; the book is crap.

          Oh - and I note he got the approval of Appiah on this one - Appiah by the way, is someone who is also entirely irrelevant to the conversation in Africa today; a charge he brought against Asante and the others. In fact; one might even say that Asante has more relevance in Africa than Appiah -

          And again - the jests he pokes at the derivations of the name of several Afrocentric scholars is needless to say, a bit tiring.

          5 out of 5 stars A Devastating Critique.......2003-02-14

          The study of history hinges on the honest search for truth. Even though everyone has biases, it is critical that the ideal of objectivity be something that scholars strive for. Eurocentrism is a betrayal of this ideal as is Afrocentrism. In this volume, Stephen Howe critiques Afrocentrism from its earliest origins to the present day. The results are devastating. Over and over again Howe documents that the difference between Afrocentrists and mainline historians of Africana is that the Afrocentrists abandon widely accepted canons of evidence in favor of ideology. Howe analyzes most of the prominent Afrocentrist thinkers such as Molefi Asante, Martin Bernal, Cheikh Anta Diop, etc., and finds them to be less than objective in their approach to history. Howe also discusses the various strands of thought that have gone into Afrocentric thinking over the years, the origins of which are more obscure. Bottom line, it is not an acceptable corrective of Eurocentric history to swing to the opposite extreme and imagine a history of Africa and the African diaspora. If you want to understand this history, try John Hope Franklin, Sterling Stuckey, Robin D. G. Kelley, James Horton, Franklin Knight, or any other of a great number of scholars who stick to accepted standards of historical evidence without betraying their heritage.

          1 out of 5 stars biased and racist.......2002-08-10

          This book is really not about afrocentrism and its inadequacies. its part of a world war, directed mainly against african people. this book and other books of this nature tries to wash away any achievment that the african has done. if they want to attack afrocentrism as the teaching of myths, have they attacked the nonesense about christopher colombus discovering america? because he discovered absolutely nothing. he set in motion a act of genocide 10 times worse than the act of genocide in europe. yet it is called the holocaust as though it was the only one. now in thier scrabble to put african's indigenous people outside of history, they have made people investigate their own writers who debunked the european concept that the world waited in darkness for them to bring the light. and even their own writers have shown that with the entry of europeans into non european civilization, the light went out! these fools steadily want to claim egypt as a civilization created by europeans. but it couldnt have been created by europeans. because greece (the first european civilization) didnt emerge until around 850 b.c. that was thousands of years later than egypt. so if they werent european that only leave the indigenous africans and the asiatic people. why would asiatics of western asia (mistakingly called the middle east) leave their homeland, come to africa and build a civilization in egypt and stay there for 3,000 years before even having any contact with their homeland? so they couldnt have been asiatics. according to the papyrus of hunnefir the egyptians say they originated in the south fron the moutain of the moons at the source of the nile near kenya and the great lake regions of central africa. herodotus said the colchias, egyptians and ethiopians are the same. they have black skin, wooly hair and thick lips....herodotus does not hold his same white supremist, "the european build everything of noble stature mentality." he sits up and bashes african-centered and afrocentric historians, and then he turns around and uses the same hypocritical things he accusses them of doing. his jokes about african names only proves, the typical european arrogance towards cultures and civilizations they did not create. so because of his sickness he has to ridicule, lay claim to, or try to destroy whatever he hasn't created. this book is a joke, its ridiculous, distorted, and full of fakery
          Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes
            Stephen HOWE
            Manufacturer: Verso
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Hardcover
            ASIN: B000OPMQVM

            Books:

            1. A Short Guide to Writing About Literature (Short Guides Series)
            2. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
            3. Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand (Civil War in the West)
            4. Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa
            5. Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (Penguin Classics)
            6. Beyond the Great Story: History as Text and Discourse
            7. Black Women in America (3 Vol. Set)
            8. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys
            9. Chasin' The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker
            10. Crazy from the Heat

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