Stolen Legacy

Words cannot describe how disgusted I am by this book. It takes everything we know to be fact and spits and tramples all over it.

This book is the exact equivalent of the same kind of garbage that was spewed by 19th century racist "scholars" like Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Oswald Mosley, and John Burgess. Just as they argued for white supremacy, so too does George James argue for the opposite. Nothing ever changes it seems; millions of people have to suffer and die because of racist ideologies, and yet people never truly learn the dangers of such a sickening worldview.

First of all, I'm not against people re-analyzing history. All historians will often look back at their work, or the work of someone else which may have become antiquated over the years. New ancient works may be discovered which challenge the viewpoints which we may have held as fact for decades. This is good. It allows us to get a more accurate view of the ancient world so as to learn from it. This is different from revisionist history, where the thesis is largely debated among historians. Unfortunately, and it's sad to say, this book doesn't even qualify under revisionist history; it's full of malignant lies. For those who haven't read it, here's a summary:

James argues that Egyptian civilization was black. Fair enough; if that's his argument, he must have proof, right? Well, not quite. DNA testing which has recently been done on mummified corpses (by scientists from ALL races, mind you) shows that they contained traces of Nordic, Semitic, and Persian, among many others. This was seen for both the Pharaohs and the lower class corpses. By my calculation, this means two things; either A) There is a worldwide conspiracy among all scientists involved to hide their true findings and simply make stuff up in order to fill their own agenda, or, more likely, B) James hasn't a clue what he's talking about. According to James, everyone in Egypt was black...except for the hundreds of people whose DNA indicates they were not. But hey, I guess it's possible for two entirely black people to have a Semitic/Persian/Nordic child.

It gets worse. Did you know that the Greeks were simply crooks who stole all of their ideas from the Egyptians? That's right, the Greeks didn't invent anything, it was all stolen! James has proof too: Aristotle travelled to Egypt, where he visited the Library of Alexandria and stole all of the knowledge from the Egyptians. Ouch, that's pretty rough isn't it? That's enough proof to put the nail in the coffin of Greek learning. There's just one problem; it's not true. Aristotle died in 322 BC. The Library of Alexandria was built by Ptolemy II Philadelphos, who ruled from 281 BC to 246 BC. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would be pretty difficult for Aristotle to steal ideas from a Library which was built over 40 years after his death. But hey, in Mr. James' book the dead not only rise again, but also steal ideas and formulate complex thought patterns in only a short matter of time.

"The term Greek philosophy, to begin with, is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in existence." This is what he writes early in the book. I don't even know how to refute this argument, if one could call it such. James believes that Greeks stole their ideas from Egypt. Philosophy, science, all of it. To be fair, this belief could be possible. The Greeks were definitely influenced by the Egyptians; only a liar would deny that. But here's what I don't understand. How is it that after the Egyptians had their ideas stolen from them, they don't make a single mention of these philosophical ideas? The Egyptians were notorious for how well they recorded their achievements, yet not a single papyrus scroll, engraving, or work of art mentions anything about philosophy. This leads me to believe that either, A) The Greeks stole the Egyptian's ideas, and then Egypt suffered an epidemic of amnesia whereby everyone forgot that they ever had these ideas, or B) James is full of it. Imagine, if you will, that you and a friend are writing an essay on the same topic. Your friend comes over and, while you're unaware, steals your paper and hands it in before you. Now, instead of reporting him for what he's done, you completely forget that you ever wrote a paper, and cheerfully go about your life as if nothing happened. Sounds ridiculous, right? Yet this is the exact type of logic James uses in his book, where it is just as laughable.

I just don't understand what the point of this book is. That blacks are better than whites? Even if that were true, what does the author propose? That we discard all of Greek and Roman history because it's stolen? That schools should only teach history about black people? James never actually discusses why he wrote this book.

However, what sickens me most about this book is that it completely ignores the fact that Africa actually extends BELOW just Egypt and Nubia, and that marvellous civilizations have existed there since long before these two. African civilization is largely unknown because the tribes in sub-Saharan Africa to a large extent relied on oral tradition. There tribes did not have a Livy, Polybius, Thucydides, or Tacitus to record their achievements with a fair degree of accuracy. It is sad to say, but what is today known as sub-Saharan Africa has for a long time garnered an atrocious press. Racist ideologues called them savages and barbarians, simply because their civilization differed from theirs, and sadly, this view has stuck in many places around the world. Indeed, the truth is that Africans have a lot to be proud of, just as Europeans and Asians do. Men like George James do nothing but cause even more hatred when it is not needed.

Any book that can render this kind of reaction by intellectuals and regular folk alike should be on everyone's reading list. In today's culture of complaint, people hide bad art and cheap sensational ideas behind political/ideological fads and the automatic public reactions to their support or refutation all the time. Yet even with a healthy skepticism firmly in place, one must look at the thought provoking questions that this book demands are asked--and the near automatic visceral emotions that seem to go with them.
I read this book several years ago in college. Though I didn't particularly like the preachy style, or much of the rhetoric seemingly impossible to prove scientifically, it successfully started me on an intellectual journey through a plethora of Egyptological authors of the past two centuries and a spiritual awakening. This book, I am reminded, has such power, because it raises more uncomfortable questions than it answers.
Before or even after an opinion of this work has become set in stone in one's mind (usually inspired by an emotional knee-jerk reaction, as if the book is little more than a political metaphor and not an attempt to rediscover the actual ancient world) one must ask themselves, as I was again forced to upon re-reading it:
Have you actually READ the book?
Have you read [email protected]'s review of this yet (June 29, 1998)? Were you aware of the facts he brings to light and refers to- more importantly, the intellectual paradigms he used to formulate his opinions, as those are (linguistics specifically)part and parcel of the methods, principles and practices of all Western scholars?
Why do you think all architecture schools across all of Western civilization throughout the centuries to today begin their students' studies with the Pyramids?
Have you seen the pyramids of the Sudan and Nubia, some predating those of Giza, recently unearthed by German archaeological teams?
And what do you think our Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, et al) would have thought of such a work (and think of the back of the dollar bill before you answer)?
This book, even with the sermon-like fault of its structure (which says as much about when it was written--and what it took for someone with these kinds of ideas to be published at the time--as the author) remains powerful and influential because of the degree to which it wrestles and answers these kinds of questions. STOLEN LAGACY has its faults, but its ability to make you think, whether you want to or not, isn't one of them.
Definitiely worth reading; also worth owning...and continually argued about.

George G.M. Jones knows not a thing about real history. Claiming that the Great Library of Alexandria is where Aristotle took his knowledge is ludacris because the library was built by Ptolemy II. The Ptolemic line was the successor line in Egypt. Alexander, himself was crowned pharaoh by the people because they saw him as a liberator of Egypt. The priests of Egypt viewed him as the son of Zeus. These priests were of the god Ammon who were told at his oracle. The Egyptian Mysterey System was a creation of white men and is a proven hoax. The first Greek philosophers most likely had some knowledge of Babylonian and Egyptian thought they added reasoning, something none existant in Egyptian or Babylonian thought. Even saying that ancient Egyptians were all black is wrong, as the people of Egyptian constituted a mixture of races. They were black and white. They were in fact Semites, like the Jews and Arabs, people who are Caucasian. Skin color alone does not tell a man's race. An Indian from India is in reality Caucasian, making him closer to Europeans than the Japanese or Chinese. Even most the languages of India and Iran are Indo-European, while the Basque live in France and Spain but speak a language isolate. If the Greeks stole anything from anyone it was the Phoneicians and their alphabet, something that is the ancestor to the Greek, Latin, Etruscan, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets. The name Kemet was a reference to the black soil of Egypt. Today it is called Misr anyways.

As a long time researcher of Masonic history it is clear where this work "stole" it's bad ideas--they are ultimately derived from Terrason's _Life of Sethos_ (although Jame's probably did NOT go back this far, his sources are some fictional Masonic works like _The Ancient Mysteries and Modern Masonry_). If you can get a copy of "Sethos" read the 1732 english edition (otherwise you'll have to read it in French).
It is clearly fictional and largely an artifact of the post-Napoleonic Egyptian craze. Of course this was long before hieroglyphics were even translated. Anyone, even knowing a basic history of the ancient world, would have to be insane to take this seriously. It is completely transparent today as simple racism and a desperate need for self-esteem--at the expense of others. Thus the only thing "classic" about this is it is a classic document of pseudohistory and African-American racism.

Contrary to the opinions of the reviewer who calls himself "classics lover" (after reading his review, it should be more along the lines of "fantasy lover") this book is a Masterpiece that needs to be read by any serious student of true, historical fact.
First of all, contrary to "classics lover" opinion, ancient Egypt was founded, cultivated and reached it's peak as a civilizing empire by aBLACK, AFRIKAN PEOPLE. Their own documents, in their own words say as much and while in the later (and by the way declining) years of the empire, they did intermingle with other races of peoples that they had conquered.
As for the "Mystery System" to place the founding of this system in 18th century France is to show one's ignorance in full display & spectacle. If you were to do any real and detailed study into the mystery systems of the world such as the Free Masons, Kabalists, etc... you will find that their beliefs, structures and practices could be traced, as many of them do, back to the courts of the Pharoh's. Make no mistake, they have perverted most of the original meaning, but the origin is still found in Egypt. Concerning his statement that every scholar of history has stated and never denied that greece was influenced by Egypt is itself ludicrous. To this day, so called "scholars" are dening that fact, and by the way, isn't it funny how you find not one scholar in greece worthy of mentioning until after the travels and conquests of Alexander the Great in particular in Egypt, then all of a sudden here comes all of these incredible scholars and books and of course the library of Alexandria containing all of this wisdom. Why where these things not founded in greece prior to this time period if the greeks where really so scholarly?
As far as the ridiculous comment: not only did the greek plagiarize them, but that miracolously, this plagiarism caused the egyptians to instantly forget all of the plagiarized material and not make any new records of it! You must remember that unlike Afrika which has historically had a respect and thirst for the both the obtaining, recording and sharing of knowledge, europeans (see rome) have always had just as much a thirst for destroying and rewriting any and all records that didn't line up with their propaganda which is exactly what happened to the records of ancient Egypt.
It is clear that "classics lover" has had a hard time as most do when confronted with something that completely destroys the long held myths that they have been taught. If you are a true student who will take the time to study all the facts, then you will see that Dr. James did his homework when he put this book together and begin to appreciate the wonderful and rich tradition that is ancient Egypt, a glorious Afrikan Empire.

Some people claim the ancient Egyptians were not Blacks but "Mediterranean," in complexion, whatever that means.

The Sphinx (Heru-ur/ Horus I) of Egypt clearly depicts the face of a Black. It is because of the great accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians that some people claim they were not Black. The Copts are now very mixed; The Arabs only invaded in 640 A.D. Even the name of ancient Egypt, "Kam," means "Black."

Many many of the best minds of Greece - Pythagoras, Democritus, Plato etc. studied in Egypt. That is an established fact. The knowledge they obtained in Africa served as the basis of European civilization.

I recommend the fascinating book, "Retake Your Fame."

I think the White folks who are rating this book low are just in denial of the historic FACTS! Blacks are the original peoples, not Caucasians. That's why Black blood is the strongest and why Whites invented that "one drop" rule. The Pymies of Africa are amongst the oldest race on the planet and their fossils have been found all over the world. They were a dwarf like Black peoples. Even the Chinese described those who came before them as a short Black peoples. African's legacy was stolen just like they themselves were stolen from Africa and brought to America. Whites love to discredit Black history and give themselves all the credit to promote White supremacy. I even saw on the internet where Whites lay out the plan to discredit Black scholars at all costs. The Greeks and Romans took on many practices from the ancient Kemetians (Egytians) without giving them credit, typical Caucasian mentality just like they did with the Native Americans and other indigneous peoples. Like someone else here said: To the Caucasians, Kemet civilized you all!!

I used to wonder how it was that the major Greek philosophers, scientists etc. could attain all the knowledge of the known universe in their lifetime and then be persecuted for introducing said knowledge into their cultural population with questionable and sometimes deadly results. Well the answer to these questions and more is contained in Stolen Legacy. The simple fact of the matter is, the Greeks went to school elsewhere, did not complete the curriculum, left early, came back with invading armies, took important documents, destroyed others, assigned their names, their friends names and other unknown persons names, etc., laid claim to information that could not have possibly been obtained in one's lifespan. A ground breaking book...has yet to be discredited.

Had George G. M. James been able to write this book in a manner which was not polemic, not enervating, not preachy, not tiring to read, it would have 50 times the effect it anyway has plus he'd have way more allies than he actually does.

His argument is that Greek philosophy and sciences were not original at all, and that for the most part they were directly influenced ("stolen" as he puts it) by the Egyptians. Being that this is a very provocative and controversial point, he needs some seriously solid sources to support him. He does provide this support of his argument but not in a very convincing manner. He cites both ancient historians (mostly of Greek origin)as well as modern specialised historians (egyptologists) to achieve this.

Exactly there arises the first problem. For an issue of massive significance such as the one he raises this is a remarkably thin book barely spanning over 150 pages. Because of this, everytime he dismisses a greek philosopher or mathematician ,etc., he does this in a mere 5-10 pages simply by bombarding the reader by quotes from ancient and modern texts or accounts. This is the stly of the book for its entirety and in the end you have the feeling that you might be reading the most important telephone catalogue ever written.

This not only tires the reader incredibly but it also undermines the author himself. The concept is, of course, to motivate the reader to research this further himself by checking up on the sources the author provides. I very much doubt he achieves this goal. Only the extremely unbiased and those with loads of time in their hands might do that. The majority of the readers would rather prefer a much more expanded book with a lot more detail. The way George James' book is written anybody who wishes to remain with the "orthodox" version of history will do so thinking that this book is simply equal to tabloid polemics.

The truth of the matter is that James does have an argument. To what extend this argument can carry its weight is still under debate, but it is a fact that the influence of the Egyptians upon the Greeks was immense. Being that the Egyptian system of philosophy and sciences was one that worked through levels of initiation and much less through documentation the picture that has prevailed is the one most people know about the Greek civilisation being the first that incorporated such an advanced level in those areas.

But advanced students of history know all too well that not only the Egyptians but the Chinese too (to name just two cultures) had achieved similar if not far superior levels in those fields. The reasons why the Greeks have been chosen as pioneers or forerunners of western civilisations are complex, intriguing, and in any case far more complicated than James argues.

Still, i consider this a horribly written book with a very important issue underneath the mess.

But there arises the second problem. In reality, it matters very little, or it should matter very little who first thought what, or who first invented what. James makes the same mistake as those he thinks he opposes. He has the same agenda as those he opposes because his argument is one of a racial backround. It's really irrelevant whether philosophy or sciences were first founded or solidified by white cultures, black cultures, or asian cultures. Human history has far less borders than some would want people to think.

As it is, this is yes an important book, a very faulty one simoultaneously, and one that fails to effectively raise the issue it advocates. Only people with a deep understanding over knowledge of history will see whichever value James's book has. Other than that, a rather wasted effort...

Why don't you people of European decent stop HATING on Professor James... and Asiatic Black People in particular!

The professor lays forth rational and sound thought to the fact that Black People are the Fathers and Mothers of all civilizations - somebody had to be first.

As far as some very speculative, inconclusive, flawed, no doubt bias, and I am sure... skewed DNA testing... "take it and shove it up" your long history of evolutionary (pagan) theories.

What are Asiatic Blacks the world over to believe? That Egypt - being surrounded by dark skinned people "today" and "then" (And am I being racist to assume that the people were a lot darker "then", before widespread intermixing?) - was built by blonde hair, blue eyed caucasians? Is this the underlying messages you haters and robbers are proposing... or wish free independet people are to think?

Eat your hearts out... in this day and TIME, it shall remain only a wish. Read message to the BlackMan In America, by Elijah Muhammad, also!

Stolen Legacy is an EXCELLENT BOOK... Pro. James arguments are laid out in a most practical and easy to understand manner. That is if you are Black or a true seeker of truth.

"As a man believes so is he" - Jesus (a Blackman) Christ. Professor James has done the hard work, it is up to us Asiatic Blacks the world over to Believe It!

Your library is not complete without this Jewel!