Martin Bernal

Martin Gardiner Bernal(/bərˈnɑːl/;10 March 1937– 9 June 2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history. He was a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies atCornell University.He is best known for his workBlack Athena,a controversialwork which argues that the culture, language, and political structure ofAncient Greececontained substantial influences fromEgyptandSyria-Palestine.

Early life and education

Bernal was born and grew up inHampstead,London, the son of the physicistJohn Desmond Bernaland artists' patronMargaret Gardiner,both of whom were from families ofJewishorigin who converted toChristianity.He was educated atDartington HallSchool and then atKing's College, Cambridge,where he was awarded a degree in 1961 with first-class Honours in the Oriental StudiesTripos.At that time he specialised in the language and history of China, and spent some time at thePeking University.He carried on as a graduate student at Cambridge, and with the assistance of theHarkness Commonwealth Fellowshipalso atUniversity of California, BerkeleyandHarvard University,finishing his PhD in Cambridge in 1965 with thesis titledChinese Socialism to 1913when he was elected afellowat King's.

Career

In 1972 Bernal moved toCornell UniversityinNew York,United States. There he resided in theTelluride Houseas a faculty fellow,and became a full professor in 1988. He taught there for the rest of his career, retiring in 2001.

Initially he taught Government Studies at Cornell, and continued his research on modern Chinese history. Under the impact of theVietnam Warhe had also developed an interest in Vietnamese history and culture, and learned the Vietnamese language.

From about 1975, however, Bernal underwent a radical shift in his interests. In his own words:

The scattered Jewish components of my ancestry would have given nightmares to assessors trying to apply theNuremberg Laws,and although pleased to have these fractions, I had not previously given much thought to them or to Jewish culture. It was at this stage that I became intrigued—in a Romantic way—in this part of my 'roots'. I started looking into ancient Jewish history and— being on the periphery myself—into the relationship between the Israelites and the surrounding peoples, particularly the Canaanites and the Phoenicians. I had always known that the latter spoke Semitic languages, but it came as quite a shock to learn that Hebrew and Phoenician were mutually intelligible and that serious linguists treated both as adialectof a single Canaanite language.

During this time, I was beginning to study Hebrew and I found what seemed to me a number of striking similarities between it and Greek...

Bernal came to the conclusion that ancient Greek accounts of Egyptian influence on their civilisation should be taken seriously. He had been interested in ancient Egypt since childhood, in part inspired by his grandfather SirAlan Gardiner.Bernal's new direction was strengthened by his discovery of the work ofCyrus GordonandMichael Astour.In due course he wroteBlack Athena.

Bernal also wrote the bookCadmean Letters,devoted to the origins of theGreek Alpha bet.He devoted his next twenty years to writing the next two volumes ofBlack Athena,with the second volume devoted to archaeological and documentary evidence, and the third to linguistic evidence. He also spent considerable time defending his work.

He becameProfessor Emeritusupon his retirement in 2001.

Personal life

In 1961, Bernal married Judy Pace (later known asJudith Dunn).Together, they had one daughter and twin sons.They later divorced.His second wife, Leslie Miller-Bernal, and his five children survived him.

Books

• Bernal, Martin (1966).Vietnam Signposts.London: Views Quarterly Review.(pamphlet)
• Bernal, Martin (1976).Chinese Socialism to 1907.Ithaca:Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-0915-8.
• Bernal, Martin (1987).Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985.Rutgers University Press.ISBN978-0-8135-1277-8.
• Bernal, Martin (1990).Cadmean Letters: The Transmission of the Alphabet to the Aegean and Further West Before 1400 B.C.Eisenbrauns.ISBN978-0-931464-47-8.
• Bernal, Martin (1991).Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume II: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence.Rutgers University Press.
• Moore, David Chioni, ed. (2001).Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics.Duke University Press.ISBN978-0-8223-2706-6.
• Bernal, Martin (2006).Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence.Rutgers University Press.ISBN978-1-85343-799-1.
• Bernal, Martin (2012).Geography of a Life.Bloomington:Xlibris.ISBN978-1-4653-6375-6.

Responses

• Lefkowitz, Mary(1996). Guy M. Rogers (ed.).Black Athena Revisited.University of North Carolina Press.(critical response)
• Lefkowitz, Mary(1997).Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History.Basic Books.
• Lefkowitz, Mary(2008).History Lesson: A Race Odyssey.Yale University Press.
• Berlinerblau, Jacques(1999).Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals.Rutgers University Press.
• Clarence E. Walker(2001).We Can't Go Home Again: An Argument About Afrocentrism.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0195095715.
• Ronald H. Fritze(2011).Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions.Reaktion Books.ISBN978-1861898173.

References

• Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Martin Bernal",The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature.Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr. 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.ISBN978-0-313-32973-9.pp 114–15.

External links

• Martin Bernal page at Cornell University
• Martin Bernal short CV at Cornell University