Synopses & Reviews
The experiences of Africans in the Old World--the Mediterranean and Islamic worlds, is followed by their movement into the New, where their plight in lands claimed by Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and English colonial powers is analyzed from enslavement through the Cold War. Particular attention is paid to the everyday lives of the working classes and their cultural development. Their exploits, challenges, and struggles are covered over a broad time frame that links as well as differentiates past and present circumstances.
Review
"An outstanding synthesis of the history of the African diaspora. Well conceived, argued, and written in an engaging style, Reversing Sail will be indispensable in courses on the peoples of Africa and its diaspora. Specialists, students, and the general reader will find this book intellectually stimulating and enlightening." Colin Palmer, Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University"With commanding scholarship both broad and deep, and with a style that is at once engaging and impeccable in its judgment, Michael Gomez's Reversing Sail fulfills a long-standing need for a synoptic history of the African Diaspora. Synthesizing the best of classical and contemporary scholarship, Gomez provides a powerful interpretive framework that situates and links the African Diaspora at every step with the movement of world history. Reversing Sail is much more than a textbook, but it is also one that will challenge and inspire teachers and students by the new standard set by what is a landmark work." Robert A. Hill, Professor of History and Editor-in-Chief, The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers, UCLA"With commanding scholarship both broad and deep, and with a style that is at once engaging and impeccable in its judgment, Michael Gomez's Reversing Sail fulfills a long-standing need for a synoptic history of the African Diaspora. Synthesizing the best of classical and contemporary scholarship, Gomez provides a powerful interpretive framework that situates and links the African Diaspora at every step with the movement of world history. Reversing Sail is much more than a textbook, but it is also one that will challenge and inspire teachers and students by the new standard set by what is a landmark work." Robert A. Hill, Professor of History and Editor-in-Chief, The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers, UCLA
Synopsis
This book examines the global unfolding of the migrations and dispersals of the African Diaspora.
Synopsis
This book examines the global unfolding of the African Diaspora, the migrations and dispersals of people of African, from antiquity to the modern period. Their exploits, challenges, and struggles are discussed over a wide expanse of time in ways that link as well as differentiate past and present circumstances. The experiences of Africans in the Old World, in the Mediterranean and Islamic worlds, is followed by their movement into the New, where their plight in lands claimed by Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and English colonial powers is analyzed from enslavement through the Cold War. While appropriate mention is made of persons of renown, particular attention is paid to the everyday lives of working class people and their cultural efflorescence. The book also attempts to explain contemporary plights and struggles through the lens of history.
About the Author
Michael A. Gomez is Professor of History at New York University. He is the author of Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu (Cambridge, 1992) and Exchanging our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South (1998). He currently serves as director of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora.
Table of Contents
Part I. 'Old' World Dimensions: 1. Antiquity; 2. Africans and the Bible; 3. Africans and the Islamic world; Part II. 'New' World Realities: 4. Transatlantic movement; 5. Enslavement; 6. Asserting the right to be; 7. Reconnecting; 8. Movement of peoples.