History in Black

The effort to trace the origins of human culture to Africa, rather than to Greece as dominant European thought has long contended, says Shavit (history of the Jewish people, Tel Aviv U.), is part of obsession with initial sources--a reaction to white western supremacy--that glosses over the vast web of transmission and borrowing that comprises the history of culture. Like European origin myths, he agrees that it has value for the self-awareness of African Americans and their status in society. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR