Geography of a Life

‘An Astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written . . . salutary, exciting and in its historiographical aspects convincing.’ (G. W Bowersock, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.) ‘Demands to be taken seriously . . . Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his theses may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all.’ (Ray, Herbert Thompson Reader in Egyptology, University of Cambridge.) Anticipation of ‘Geography of a Life’ ‘Martin Bernal himself has avowed that Black Athena owes its conception to a mid-life crisis. Now that he has overcome this set-back with obvious success, one hopes he will live long enough to follow the example set by his mother Margaret Gardiner and his grandfather Sir Alan (Gardiner), who both wrote their memoirs in their eighties. I have no doubt that Bernal’s autobiography will generate more interest among educated lay persons and less irritation among scholars than any future volume of Black Athena.’ (Arno Egberts, Professor of Egyptology, University of Leiden.)

Martin Bernal is Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. The first two volumes of Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization ("I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985"; and "II: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence") have been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, French, and Swedish and will soon be available in Greek and Japanese.