Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1680 (Studies in Comparative World History) - Softcover

Thornton, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521398649 ISBN 13: 9780521398640

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

The cultural and institutional importance of Africans in shaping the New World is stressed in this study's portrayal of their contributions to Afro-American history from a broader perspective than that of slave laborers.

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Review

"No one has yet given a fuller account of the transit of African civilization to the New World in the first three centuries, and no one has provided a fuller theory to understand that great migration....African and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World is a work of great significance for what it accomplishes as well as for what it suggests needs to be accomplished....Thornton has created a new starting point for the study of African-American life in the Americas. John Thornton has made a signal contribution toward understanding how Africa and Africans helped to make the Atlantic world." Ira Berlin, William and Mary Quarterly "Thornton imaginatively underscores unities around the Atlantic and reduces the dichotomies separating continents, racial and religious groups, masters and slaves." American Historical Review "An ambitious and far-reaching reinterpretation of early modern global history, this book emphasizes the autonomous role of Africans in both Africa and the Americas through the seventeenth century. The research base of this study is impressive, building upon a variety of well-chosen original sources in six languages....this very significant, far-reaching, impressive work is essential reading for American historians. It places slavery, race relations, and culture formation in the Americas within the broad Atlantic context crucial to our understanding of these vital and very complex questions." The Journal of American History "Thornton's book is going to provoke extended debate about slavery and the Atlantic civilization that African slavery helped to build....This product of 20 years research in Portuguese and Spanish archives establishes the intellectual foundation for an Africanist interpretation of the history and culture of the Atlantic world. It should be in every college library." Choice "One of the immediate pleasures of encountering this book is its vast originality. It is not a derivitive text...The book offers a flood of new insights, big and small and even microscopic...Scholars reading this work will be embarking on a journey of rediscovery of a territory they thought was familiar." Kennel A. Jackson, Journal of World History ."..a major contribution to the study of the history of slavery and the slave trade....Thornton's analysis is probably the strongest and most articulate statement that Africa and Africans were not passive agents in a European-dominated trade." Paul E. Lovejoy, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Drawing on information from an array of primary and secondary sources, Thornton arrives at several conclusions that reflect the main thrust of contemporary slave studies. He also provides an impressive analysis of the rise, operation, and maintenance of slavery in West Africa." Patrick Carroll, Latin American Research Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521398649
• ISBN 13: 9780521398640
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 349