TY - BOOK ID - 101468993 TI - Born in blackness : Africa, Africans, and the making of the modern world, 1471 to the Second World War PY - 2021 SN - 9781631495823 1631495828 PB - New York, N.Y. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company DB - UniCat KW - African diaspora KW - African diaspora. KW - HISTORY / Africa / General. KW - History, Modern. KW - International relations. KW - Slave trade KW - Slave trade. KW - History. KW - History KW - Africa KW - Africa. KW - Europe KW - Europe. KW - West Africa. KW - Relations KW - History of Africa KW - anno 1500-1799 KW - anno 1400-1499 KW - anno 1800-1999 KW - History, Modern KW - Modern history KW - World history, Modern KW - World history KW - Black diaspora KW - Diaspora, African KW - Human geography KW - Africans KW - Transatlantic slave trade KW - Migrations KW - Council of Europe countries KW - Eastern Hemisphere KW - Eurasia UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:101468993 AB - "Revealing the central yet intentionally obliterated role of Africa in the creation of modernity, Born in Blackness vitally reframes our understanding of world history. In a sweeping narrative that traverses 600 years, one that eloquently weaves precise historical detail with poignant personal reportage, Pulitzer Prize finalist Howard W. French retells the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in America, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's dehumanizing engagement with the 'darkest' continent. Born in Blackness dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures whose stories have been repeatedly etiolated and erased over centuries, from unimaginably rich medieval African emperors who traded with Asia; to Kongo sovereigns who heroically battled seventeenth-century European powers; to ex-slaves who liberated Haitians from bondage. In doing so, French tells the story of gold, tobacco, sugar, and cotton--and the greatest 'commodity' of all, the millions of people brought in chains from Africa to the New World, whose reclaimed histories fundamentally help explain our present world"-- ER -