History Books

I purchased this book because David Quammen referenced it in one of his books, and I really enjoy Quammen's books. It is listed on various websites and in some magazines as a "Nature Classic".

I have visited and hiked the deserts and canyon in Utah and northern Arizona. That allowed me to feel a lot of what Abbey writes about. It is a special place. I wish I could go back and see Arches National Park when Abbey was there. (It was Arches National Monument at the time of his stay there.)

While there are some controversial things in this book, and while I don't agree with everything Abbey writes, I have to say that I really hated to come to the end of this book. Besides the stories about nature, Abbey also writes about some of the human activities in this area.

I think I understand why people call this a landmark book. The environmental movement was just starting in the sixties. (Does anyone else remember the green Ecology symbol?)

An early environmentalist even before the term came into use. Ranks up there with Sand County Almanac and Silent Spring. A must read for those who care about the environment. Abbey predicted some of the water problems that now face the southwest.

This is my favorite book. I consider Abbey to be a hippie environmentalist--a sort of modern day Thoreau. The book will suck you in and you'll be wishing you could run off to Moab and have a beer with Abbey.

This is "classic Abbey" and his best work. What else can be said? This book should be on everyone's reading list whether you agree with Abbey on everything or not. I loved it. You will especially enjoy it if you have an affinity for deserts, the southwest, or Moab country.

Stumbled onto this in my late teens in the early 80s and never looked back. Abbey's extreme love of nature and his well-defended loathing of what we've done to our natural world add up to a real eye-opener for those, like me at 18, who haven't thought much about how great this place must have been before we got here.
Abbey's love of solitude and comfort in being in the middle of "nowhere" inspired me to seek out remote places and my life has been all the better for it. His irascible attitude towards government also strikes a strong chord, but the main joys here lie in Ed's awe and wonder at the magnificence of the canyons and mesas he happily lives with before the bulldozers and mindless tourists inevitably arrive. The bits about people driving in for a few minutes and then leaving after taking pictures are truly classic; Ed can be one of the most hilariously dry nature writers when the mood is upon him.
I've since read most all of Abbey but still think DS is his masterpiece.
This book should be in EVERY high school English curriculum.

I have not yet finished reading this wonderful book, but I about doing it...It has been a wonderful reading experience...I really recommend it to all readers in search of a good book.

This book was written by the famous Italian statesman Niccolo Machiavelli in 1531. This book is a classic and I was pleasantly surprised that the content was not dated and the principles translate easily into the modern worlds of business and politics.
The author wrote this book as an instruction guide for governing princes in the 1500's when Italy was divided into city states and were being defeated by many foreign powers. I belive that the work is directed to Lorenzo de Medici by a letter included in the work and because at the end of the writing Machiavelli calls for a prince to unite and lead Italy against its oppressors.
The book is not unethical as I had imagined from my understanding of the ruthlessness of Machiavellian ethics. The author is only explaining tactics to use to maintain power in a kingdom or city state that are pragmatic for his time period.
Here are some examples of principles from the book:
1. When conquering a territory keep the current laws and institutions in place, but eliminate all the family of the defeated prince.
2. When trouble is sensed ahead of time it can be easily remedied, if you wait for it to show itself, it is to late.
3. Whoever is responsible for another becoming powerful, ruins himself.
4. There is no surer way of keeping possesion than by devastation.
5. Men do you are harm either because they hate you or they fear you.
6. Violence must be inflicted once and for all, it must be over quickly.
7. Build your power through the people.
8. Power is maintained through religious institutions.
9. Neglect the art of war and you lose your state.
10. If you act virtuously, you will be undone by those who are not, make use of this or not according to need.
The above is just a small sampling of the lessons in this book. My review can not do this book justice, it is full of wisdom and life lessons. It is a guide book for business leaders and politicians. I strongly suggest adding this book to your home library and referring to it often

Blood and Thunder is a lively and well-written history about Kit Carson, the exploration of the Southwest, and the eventually pursuit and incarceration of the Navajo after the Civil War.

Sides really knows how to make people and places some alive. The shy and loyal Carson, the preening and vain John C. Fremont, and the proud but somewhat sociopathic Navajo leader Narbona are all brought to life along with dozens of minor characters. Sides makes a point of showing the dark side of manifest destiny and how relentlessly the Indians were pressured to give up their way of life. This book really made me want to go visit New Mexico and Arizona and see the canyons, Anasazi ruins, etc.

Blood and Thunder is an enjoyable read and introduction to the topic.

Reviewer: Liz Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark"

Hampton Sides has written a very solid account of the wild American West. While Kit Carson is the primary focus I would hardly call this a biography - in fact, it appears to be more of a true period history with Kit Carson weaving in and out of the narrative. Oddly, this is my main complaint - parts of Kit Carson's most interesting adventures were only touched upon. I am amazed that Sides did not include more one Carson's travel with Fremont. For an excellent account of these adventures I would highly recommend A Newer World : Kit Carson John C Fremont And The Claiming Of The American West and Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire as excellent companion books.

While I am a bit baffled at the omission of the John Fremont/ Kit Carson adventures it really is my only complaint. Otherwise, Hampton Sides has written a fair and compelling account that speaks to harshness and brutality of the American West. Sides paints a vivid account of the settler/indian skirmishes that plagued the 1800's. Sides shows that both parties had its villains and its peacemakers. Kit Carson is portrayed as 2 parts indian killer and 3 part peacemaker.

"Blood and Thunder" centers on the life of Kit Carson, however the Navajo indians play much more than a secondary role. Sides tells a history of the Navajos that is rarely seen in popular writing. We see that they have flawed characters and utter inability to understand the culture that was thrust on them. The histories of the Navajos and Kit Carson collide when he is forced to embrace a scorched earth policy that drove the Navajos into submission.


Sides has an engaging writing style and while parts get bogged down in detail "Blood and Thunder" typically reads quickly. I also enjoyed the amount of effort that was put into research - while it is true that most of the sources are secondary Sides did an excellent job compiling the facts into a free-flowing narrative.

IF you enjoyed "Blood and Thunder" I would also highly recommend
A Newer World : Kit Carson John C Fremont And The Claiming Of The American West
The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream (My personal favorite)
Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire

All three books tell stories that are equally unbelievable and gives you a new respect for the early western pioneers.

Overall 4 1/2 stars rounded to 5

The author's description of the California Bear revolt, especially his description of the creation of the Bear Republic flag was not the first indication that this author had let his left-wing liberal politics jade his storytelling. And, yes, this is a story book not a history book. During the first 30 pages Sides describes the Navajos as being a tribe that was not murderous but mischeiveous. Yet, by page 100 they've gone on a rampage and slaughtered every man, woman and child. Mr Sides politics seem to flog the same old tired BS: America was and is a evil country ruled by bad men.

Subtitled "The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West", this 2006 well-documented saga transported me to a time and a place that I've been hearing about all my life. It's all packed into a mere 497 pages and every page unearthed new facts and figures about the history of America from the 1820s to the late 1860s.

The narrative is tied together by following Kit Carson, a frontiersman from the American southwest, a trapper and soldier who was illiterate, but was able to speak five different Indian languages as well as Spanish. I learned a lot from this book, mostly about the people who were involved in what is sometimes called the "manifest destiny" to expand America from ocean to ocean and conquer all peoples who got in their way. Here we meet a cast of familiar characters from President James K. Polk who instigated the Mexican War, to army explorer John Charles Freemont as well as all the army officers and politicians who played a role in changing the landscape of America forever. We also meet the Indians.

The writer brings a critical eye and a deep understanding to the politics of the time which forced the destruction of the various Indian groups. I learned more than I ever thought I would about Indians, especially the Navajos, who fiercely resisted the American expansion but, in the end, became but a shadow of their former selves.

The book is rich in detail, and every page is full of facts. Kit Carson saw himself becoming a legend in his own time. Mostly, this legend was pure fabrication from the pens of flamboyant writers, but his name is forever linked with those turbulent times which saw him eventually becoming an officer for the Union army and leading battles against the Indians who he certainly respected.

The book is interesting and also a little dense for my taste. I found I was forgetting the names of the battles and the officers and the different tribes of Indians as I was reading. It was one of those books that I read all the words but let the details wash over me as I experienced the bigger picture of how the west was won. It was bloody and it wasn't nice. There was cruelty and injustice but that's just the way things were. We can't whitewash the truth of history.

Blood and Thunder gave me a fresh perspective on what really happened all those years ago that formed the America I know and love today. It is not for a book everyone though. I just happen to love history.

Hampton Sides has written one of the finest histories of the American West to date. BLOOD and THUNDER is a fascinating adventure of not only Kit Carson, but the many people he was associated with in his incredible travels throughout America's western expansion. The characters come alive, as Sides describes their personalities and motivations. This is a very equitable presentation of the conquest of a land and it's people, with rationales for the participants behaviors, both good and bad. Hampton Sides wonderful writing style allows the history told in BLOOD and THUNDER to translate into the present day, and helps to explain current challenges to the land and people of the United States of America.

If you enjoy history and personal examples of success and failure in leadership styles this is the book to read. The book is not a boring biography on George Washington but a living story full of events researched from historical letters, records, etc. and recorded in well organized flow by the writer.

If you are looking for a good book on leadership and you need to decide on the myriad of books available on the subject, go with this one. Drawing on experiences from Washington's life, Brookhiser gives valuable insights to how Washington handled the many challenges he faced and then explains how we can use those techniques in our lives.

We often forget just how great our Founding Fathers were and how much they gambled to start the United States. The Revolution was no sure thing and the people who were the driving forces behind it could have paid with their lives. Washington is an example to all us today of, among other things, perseverance and guts. Despite great odds, numerous failures and never ending problems, Washington never gave up and was rewarded with success. Brookhiser should help end the fallacies that the Revolution was easy, eveybody got along and nobody played politics. Brookhise helps show that the qualities that make people great never change.

The Big Idea of this book is that Corporate America can learn a lot about leadership from George, the CEO of two startups:The Revolution and the first administration. And we can. What comes through, again and again, is that Washington put the enterprise ahead of his own needs. He subordinated his ego to what was effective.When some officers were plotting against him ,trying to get Congress to oust him, he remained calm, thought through what to do(he named the game to one in a short note), and it got resolved. He could easily have lashed out, but he did not: he restrained the desire because it would not have moved the ball forward. He never made enemies, taking the long view, knowing that today's enemy is tomorrow's friend. Sort of a cousin to Seinfeld's "friendemy." Good section on how he, as did President Kennedy, asked of others what they could do for their country, telling them at times of crisis, "My brave fellows", meaning "My fellows, be brave" trying to pull the best out of them, knowing he could not do it alone. Though a man of few words, he knew how to use them, and the writing on his address at Newburgh where he snuffed out an impending revolt of unpaid officers has the book's best writing. The idea tails off at the end, with a pointless side trip on "Sex...and Drugs" but still a worthwhile read.

This book has one foot in the self-help/life lessons genre, the other in the history/biography category. Its strength lies in the latter, i.e., Brookhiser's command of (and interest in) history. And it's a good read in large part because Washington himself is such an interesting figure.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Brookhiser organizes Washington's entire life around management challenges -- as a farmer and businessman, as a military leader, and as the first chief executive of the U.S. Now unless I'm mistaken, this method is not common in substantive history. And make no mistake, this is not "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun"; this book is the result of serious historical research.

It has three major sections: "Problems," "People," and "Self." Within each of these sections, Washington's experiences are presented according to specific themes or life lessons, e.g., communication, start-ups, dealing with troublemakers, failure, betrayal, learning from your enemies, understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, and so on.

What this means in practice is that "George Washington on Leadership" is a book of anecdotes -- but anecdotes with historical depth.

The variety in the anecdotes makes for a very lively read: first, you're reading about Washington's challenges as a military commander facing a far-more-powerful opponent (the British); then you're reading about his difficulties as the first president, learning about the office as he invents it; and next thing you know you're back on the farm, watching the CEO of the various Mount Vernon businesses make tough judgment calls about people, crops, new products and services, etc.

DOES IT WORK?
Well, yes and no. Brookhiser is really good with anecdote -- setting the scene, describing the political, military, or economic backdrop of the story he's about to tell you; giving thumbnail sketches of the personalities of the major players in the story; and then telling what happened in a lively way.

What doesn't work so well is the management lessons or life lessons he tries to extract. The narrative sometimes lurches from smooth historical narrative to frequently awkward attempts to extract the lesson. Here's an example from the first chapter: "The British knew about the French fleet in the first place, thanks to a spy of their own: Major General Benedict Arnold, whose treason would be revealed two months later. If your organization competes with other organizations, they will be trying to learn to do everything that you are learning."

Now this example is unusually bad; most of Brookhiser's attempts along these lines are far less jarring and make far more sense. But even from this brief passage I think you can see that Brookhiser's comfort zone is definitely on the history side of the fence.

THE GOOD NEWS
The good news is that the book is not unduly marred by such passages; they make up less than 2% of the book. The basic anecdotal method and thematic organization of the book work. It's a good read and a real education about Washington.

I'm glad I borrowed this book instead of buying it. I wouldn't want to contribute in any way to the enrichment of this crook. As other reviewers have pointed out, a review of the original Chinese sources themselves shows that they lend no support to the author's premise at all. Most of this, the author has simply made up. What wasn't made up consists of carefully selected facts presented in a very misleading light.

This is propaganda of a caliber that would have made the Nazis proud. I might even be tempted to laugh, but for the truth that many people will take this "book" at face value. Due to the current PC mind virus which states that it's wrong to question any anti-western fantasy that comes along, many historians who know the truth will be hesitant to argue otherwise. This reminds me of Bernal's "Black Athena" and other afrocentrist silliness which was heavily propagated in the 80's and 90's. Most serious historians, archaeologists, and linguists were scared to death that if they pointed out how absurd some of these claims were, they would be labeled as "Racist," ruining their academic careers or worse. Such is the situation now with China and Islam. Oh well...

Just to be clear, I have the highest regard for Chinese civilization, its history, and its current potential (in fact, I have quite a bit of my stock portfolio betting on Chinese civilization to thrive). China has made many important contributions through history. It's just a shame that books such as this have to cheapen it. This charade of a book is deeply disrespectful of the great minds of both China and Europe, and the REAL things they accomplished.

Menzies returns to face his critics with a sequel better than the original. He builds on is first book by uncovering the history of contacts between China and Europe. Most of this, to some extent, are known facts. But now Menzies solidifies where Europe found maps of the New World and that Chinese contacts were, up to this point, an unconsidered factor in the Renaissance. One of his strongest evidences is finding the Chinese sources that have the same inventions that da Vinci and others would later become famous for publishing. No longer a lone voice, Menzies' first book, and now this one, have unleashed a flood of researchers on Chinese exploration, a subject formally looked down upon.

His earlier book, 1421, was very good but this one falls very short of the mark. Mostly, it's about navagation and mathematics--pretty dull stuff. The basic thesis is: the Chinese has major fleets that sailed to Venice(and elsewhere) early in the 15th Century, and in doing so they conveyed aspects of their more developed technologies which, in turn gave a jump-start to the Italian Renassance.

While the theory is plausable, the book is just badly written. It's more about navagation technology and mathematics than the thesis itself. (I think a "professional" historian would have done a better presentation).

Most of the nay-sayers seem to be basing their criticism on their own assumption that the thesis is absurd; they assume that the Chinese did not travel the distances described. Personally, I think his earlier book, 1421, did a good job showing that they did. (And I have seen others support this theory as well). Read is first book; it's MUCH better. This one is a disappointment.

Not recommended.

This is, like 1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.), a well written fun account of a story that will leave many interested to learn more. It poses a radical hypothesis. But like all things, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and in this case there are almost no shreds of evidence to back any of this up. Thus one is left with a sort of Da vinci code type chase through the sources where alluding to ideas and facts is more important than the facts themselves. For these reasons this eminent author leaves the reader spell bound but to call this history is to stretch things a bit.

In the end, if it makes people more interested in the famous voyages of exploration launched by the Chinese, than it was worth it.

Seth J. Frantzman

In principle, I am very sympathetic to Mr. Menzies. I found his previous book, 1421, about the treasure fleets and their exploration of the world to be very compelling. If not an open and shut case, he provided a lot of good evidence to support his claims. The idea that Chinese maps of the world played a part in getting Western sailors to start exploring seems quite likely. In this book, he expands his claims for the Chinese, trying to find a link between Chinese fleets and the beginning of the Renaissance. Here, he stumbles a bit.

Leaving aside for a moment the validity of the claims he makes, there is a major problem with this book: it's simply not very well written. Menzies didn't show himself to be a particularly strong writer with his last book but it was easy to look past his weaknesses because that book was focused, well-argued, and entertaining in its controversiality. In this book, all of Menzies' weaknesses come to the fore.

First of all, this book stinks with Menzies' desperation to be believed. There was some of this in 1421 but it's worse here. If I'm not convinced by everything he asserts, I think he puts forth ideas worth investigating. But it's hard to follow him through the growing undercurrent of persecution. Second, he wanders all over the place here. He revises and rehashes some of the arguments he made in 1421. He finds Chinese links to the development of Western astronomy, mathematics, printing, firearms, steel and the work of famous names like Copernicus and Da Vinci. But, third, his supporting materials this time around do not have the impact of the maps and artifacts from his last book. (I, for one, see very little similarity between the Chinese drawings he shows and the Renaissance drawings.) Finally, and most irritating to me anyway, he constantly refers the reader to his website. I don't want a book that's a companion piece to a website. I want a well-argued case in the text.

Of course, we must then come to the claims he makes about the Chinese influence on the discoveries of the Renaissance. Ultimately, I came away feeling he tried to claim too much for the Chinese, which is too bad because it undermines the fact that the Chinese did have a long history of discovery (see Joseph Needham's work) and they certainly did have an influence on Western thought. However, by the thirteenth century, well before the dates Menzies is discussing here, Western Europe was awaking to the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Arabic/Islamic world as well as the East, via the Silk Road and other avenues of trade and travel. To find a direct causal link between the landing of a fleet in Italy in 1434 and the birth of the Renaissance goes a bit too far.

And, for me, there is always that nagging fact that the Chinese did little with their great discoveries. The Chinese are surely to be admired but, isolated and homogeneous, they were content to keep the outside world at bay. In the simmering West, however, these ideas boiled over into the creation of the modern world. Does it matter that the Chinese invented paper and block printing centuries before these things appeared in the West? Granted, it's interesting. However, it was Gutenberg's work that exploded the production of books that changed the world. (And Gutenberg's work of over two years to perfect his process seems to indicate that he didn't copy directly from anyone.)

Anyone who knows me knows the admiration I have for the Chinese. And I think it's great to have someone out there like Mr. Menzies, putting Chinese discoveries in the limelight and trying to find connections between East and West. But I take a more balanced view of the historical development of the topics Mr. Menzies discusses. I don't think it's necessary that he take a more balanced approach, but I do think it's necessary for him to make a better argument, write a better book.

I thought the author became a bit lost between the history of the Maori people and her own biography. At times I almost felt that she married her Maori husband as a research project and then failed to tell the reader about it. However, I did learn a great deal of the history of New Zealand.

I picked up this book at my local bookstore and could not put it down. Thompson's book mixes memoir with historic research to create a very accessible and interesting book. She smoothly combines her research on the literature of colonial-Maori contact with her own story of how she met and married her Maori husband. One of the best books on the contacts between very different cultures that I have read in a long time. And it will make you want to go to New Zealand too.

As an American transplant to New Zealand, I have to say that I found Christina Thompson's book an absolutely fascinating read. And as the author of two books on New Zealand myself (the second one a work-in-progress), I have to say that her volume has add immeasurably to my effort to understand, not only the historic Maori, but Maori today. I can also appreciate her cross cultural experience via marriage, being that my wife was born and raised in France. If Pakeha--Europeans--have historically viewed Maori with some ambiguity, I can testify to the fact that my French in-laws view me in a similar fashion. To put it politely they see me as a creature only a generation off the frontier that doesn't even know how to use a knife and fork properly--the French version of a savage, one might say. Ms. Thompson's Maori in-laws, on the other hand, impress me as being my idea of what in-laws should be. (I hope my mother-in-law doesn't read this.)
I have only one complaint about this book, and that is that I found the lack of signposts disorienting. That is to say that the reader has no way of knowing when Ms. Thompson's journey began. Was it in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s? Except for that omission, I would have to give this book five stars.

This is a fantastic book. I have read it several times. I am a dive instructor and have given this book as gifts to students. Everyone has loved it. I have given it over 10 times. One of my favorite gifts to give to my divemaster students. I am buying it again today as a gift for an open water student who got some bonus questions correct. Mike Bannon

Even though most people seem to know the outcome. (I didn't) it was a great summer read. There is still some question as to how the sub got there but who cares? This book is not about the US Navy doing an archeology study, it's about a couple of guys who love to dive who get a hold of a story and go have a look. Then spend several years figuring out what it is that they are looking at. Plus people die in this tale, so obviously what they are doing gives them enough of an adrenaline rush to make it worth doing. For the rest of us, it's a page burner summer read.

And heck if you want, you can hire a boat and a dive master and go look yourself. I'll be running a submersible with a camera from the boat though.

This is a wonderfully written tale that not only brings you face to face with deep sea diving and exploration and the dangers that go with it but also the perils faced by WW2 submariners.

If you like a good adventure then give Shadow Divers a read, after a few pages you won't be able to put it down until you finally know who U-Who really is.

Yes they identified the U-Who. But they so embellished the rest of the story that another author needed to come out and expose it.

Short on air, I'll be brief. I took this book to Blackbird Caye Resort, Belize, on a SCUBA vacation. Once started, it hooked me in, to the point I only put it down for meals and to prep for my next dive. There are 248 other reviews to inform you of the story content. Let me just add, if you buy this book, read this book, and don't like this book, you have my permission to flame this review and spit in my dive mask.

Oh my God! i cant believe i just found this amazing book, tells me everyhting i want to know about the park...you need this right away...you wont get bored, its interesting,fresh and very very complete...just what fans and non fans need!!!

From A to Z, this book accomplishes what I have been searching for for years! A guide/history/trivia book describing every land, attraction, shop, show, and restaurant in Disneyland. Not just the current ones mind you, but EVERY SINGLE ONE that the author could find to have existed in the parks 50+ year history. As a Disneyland fan since I was a kid it was a fond look back at some of the attractions I grew up with, and a good history lesson on all the rides that came before I first visited "The Happiest Place On Earth". Each item is listed alphabetically, with the biggest attractions and lands getting the most coverage. While most of the trivia and information has been written elsewhere before, it is nice to find it all in one place wrapped up with a bow! Some exciting extras include bonus lists and pictures, such as a list of every attraction to have a poster in the entrance tunnel. Its the extra touches like this that make me love this one more than other Disneyland guides I have read. While it CAN become tedious at times reading about every fruit cart, special event and other small details, it just goes to show how thorough and well done this "Encyclopedia" truly is! I doubt there is another park book out there for DL fans as satisfying a read as "The Disneyland Encyclopedia". I don't think it is possible to top this one!

I am having a great time reminiscing about all the old rides & shops in the Disneyland Encyclopedia. There are shops & rides I recall visiting when I was little in the 60's. This is very informative & full of nostalga. Highly recomended for the Disneyland enthusiast. I love it!

Great book for any Disneyland lover. I have been going to Disneyland for over 40 years, as a kid, and sharing the experience with my Son and Daughter. This book gives you insights I have never known. Mr. Strodder has done an amazing job researching the park. After reading this book, I feel that the history and the magic of Disneyland is greatly enhanced. Anyone who has been going to the park for their whole life, or is going to the park for the first time, will find that this book broadens the experience by giving you a full picture of the history and work that went into creating the magic of the Magic Kingdom.

A fantastic book detailing Disneyland over the years. It's hard to believe that it took this long for someone to compile a history of all the attractions, shops, and shows since the park opened. This book is highly recommended for the many Disneyland fanatics out there.

--M Worley, creator of WaltsMagicKingdom.com

I own the original French version of this book: "Peau noire masques blancs"! Franz Fanon addressed very well the racial issues encounted by previously colonized civilizations like the French island of Martinique. But Martinique is just an example. The truth is raw, but it's the truth, and there is still a long way for the freedom of the mind.

Frantz Fanon was a contemporary writer of the 1950's. Born in Martinique, he studied psychiatry and medicine in France as a young man after volunteering his services in World War II. He had an educational background in post colonial studies including racism and colonization. At the age of 27 he published "Black Skin, White Masks" which played a vital role in civil rights and Black consciousness movements throughout its time. Fanon's analysis of the Black psyche, "Black Skin, White Masks", was amazingly interesting and educational. It gave me a fresh perspective to what it means to live as the minority, as a person of color in a White world. This is a wonderful review of how the French of different backgrounds interacted with each other. There are also a few downfalls in understanding "Black Skin, White Masks". This book is hard to follow because it jumps around quite a bit, making various points throughout the same train of thought. There are many topics covered, one of the most thoroughly explored being romantic love between interracial couples. It also explores the use of language and the importance of knowing one's familial, racial, and cultural history.
One of the topics Fanon concentrates on is the Black man and his goals in life. To understand what Black men go through, one has to first understand the history of the particular Black man he is talking about which is born in an island off of France then moves to France and faces the culture shock of entering a country where the language and customs are different. Here the Black man goes from being comfortable and part of a larger entity to being the minority. At this stage the Black man feels he is worthless because of the history of the relationship of Blacks and Whites, where the Black man has led a forced life of servitude and abuse which has caused him to believe that he is inferior to the White man. The White man's racism has created the White man's feeling of superiority which correlates with the Black man's feeling of inferiority. Because of this inferiority complex the Black man has an overpowering need to prove himself equal to the White man. Fanon goes on to argue that the Black man's goal is to prove to Whites, Blacks and himself that he is an intelligent, good, and worthy of pursuing happiness individual. One of the most detailed examples was how the Black man attempts to get closer to being White by having any relationship, be it friendship or romantic (preferably sexual), with a White person other than a master/slave association. As an example Fanon tells a story of a young mulatto woman who marries a White man and in a split second goes from being the slave to being the master. Yet there are other cases when the Black man succeeds and he is not only rejected by Whites, he is repudiated by Blacks.
Another theme was that of language and what happens to a Black person when he arrives to France. The Black man has to learn how to speak French as it is spoken in France in order to become "whiter", for example, an educated Black man is no longer seen as Black because Blacks are savages while the intellectual is civilized. Yet there have been many cases where despite the success of the Black man, Whites refuse to accept them as equals and show it by speaking to them in pidgin or as children. There is also the struggle of remaining part of the Black community after assimilating into the White world. After learning to speak French, he returns home as white in the eyes of other Black people. The Black man must be able to code change in order to survive in both worlds.
Antillean education is looked at carefully in this book. Fanon compares the children of France with those of Martinique. As French children learn about their culture and their ancestors, Martinique children learn of the ancestors of others. Fanon proposes that the Black Martinique children should learn about Black history as a separate section in order to build self esteem and confidence. Children need to learn that there have been others in similar situations that have pulled through and made it despite discrimination and hate. If the educational system increases the Martinique children's knowledge and understanding of their own heritage and history, they will be able to make connections with their own ancestors and their amazing accomplishments. This would thus curb ideas of inferiority.
There was a contrast between Blacks and Whites that kept the world as it was. In order for there to be white, there has to be black. In order for there to be a slave there has to be a master. In order for one group of peoples to be superior another group has to be inferior, and this is the case with Whites and Blacks. As a result, whatever one group is the other is the opposite. Here arise a series of stereotypes that support how people think of these two groups. Whites are intelligent, progressive, civil people while Blacks are primitive savages in need of taming. Since Blacks are savages they cannot control their emotional and sexual needs hence in contrast Whites are not sexual and have the ability to suppress their emotions. From this Fanon argues that a subtle jealousy was born; the White man envied the Black man's sexual freedom.
As I read this book I could not help but think of my students and how they embody many of the same believes as Black men in the 1950's. The children I teach Mathematics to are people of color, either Latino or Black. I spend much of my day listening to them speak among themselves about various topics and have picked up on certain ideas that reflect that of past colonized populations. Although there is this total rejection of anything and everything that is White, there is also an underlining want to be White (perhaps mainstream is a better word). For example, I have heard my students discuss accents and the implication that those who have one are in some way less intelligent than those who speak like Americans. Students have also expressed in happiness that they do not speak their parent's native tongue, typically Spanish, which is an indication that they are closer to being white than those who's first language is not English. Another disturbing behavior I have noticed is the animosity towards Whites. It seems my students have been programmed to be hostile towards White people, especially peers. They constantly refer to Whites in derogatory terms; for example, when one of my mentors (an older White woman) spend a period in my classroom the students were flustered and after she left referred to her as "the white b*$^%" as opposed to "the lady who was just here". At the same time they insult each other by using terms that are associated with being Black such as insulting the wideness of their nose and/or thickness of their lips. I find this to be an interesting contradiction and would like to explore it further in hopes of understanding the contemporary adolescent.
As a teacher I found this book to be very helpful in understanding why our children of color behave the way they do and why they consistently fail in a system designed for children who are not exposed to the gruesome situations the students in the South Bronx (where I teach) go through on a daily basis. These children could very well have an inferiority complex which they will have to overcome before being able to succeed in this White man's world.

Frantz Fanon was a black man born in the French colony and island of Martinique. He trained as a doctor specialising in psychiatry. He was deeply concerned about the impact of colonialism on the people of colour, particularly how it humiliated them, destroyed their culture, values and dignity. This led him to get involved in the Algerian war of independence in the 1950s.

The book "Black Skin, White Masks" was written almost fifty years ago. This was during the time when decolonisation of the African continent and elsewhere was gathering momentum.

To adequately capture and assimilate Fanon's thinking of the question of colonialism and racism and their impact on the coloured people, one also needs to read Fanon's other great works: "The Wretched of the Earth" and "Dying Colonialism". Here one can see his anger and the background to his conclusion that it was only through violence that people of colour could liberate themselves from colonialism, particularly from mental bondage and inferiority complex that accompanied colonial subjugation.

In "Black Skin, White Masks", Fanon develops his thesis about the impact of inferiority complex of subjugated peoples and the alienation of some of them from their kind resulting in their wish to identified with the colonialists or imitate the European. There are a number of celebrated and classic cases of coloured people who have tried various formulas to change the colour of their skins, the tone of their voices or their names so that they sound more civilised (European).

Fanon's ideas about how the coloured people can liberate themselves (physically and mentally) influenced many leaders of revolutionary movements that were fighting colonialism. Some organisations in the USA, such as the Nation of Islam, appear to embrace a lot of Fanon's ideas and thinking.

The book is recommended reading for those who wish to understand the impact of colonialism on the colonised around the world and their different reactions to this menace.

If you want to understand racial identity, you should read Fanon's approach. The most influential author on ethnicity and colonization in the twentieth century.

Fanon really draws you in with this book. One feels involved with Fanon's fight not just against racism and colonization, but also his own self evaluation and struggle within himself to accept himself for who he is.

Among other things, what struck me the most was the way Fanon showed that minorities do not feel inferior because they were thrust in the midst of a majority. Considering that South Africa has minority white population and yet the black population there took on the brunt of racism and that had nothing to do with the minority subjugation.

Another line of thought that Fanon brings about is the domination of the colonized language. In Martinique, the average middle class family would insist children to speak French like the French would and not the commonly spoken Creole. The Martinican returning from France was expected to uphold that standard and speak proper French. If he reverted to his old ways of speaking, it was looked down upon. Fanon shows that the black man of Martinique maintains locked in his own cultural impositions and unless that is shed it would make it difficult for him to rise out of it.

Fanon brings about how the psychological impact of colonization through language, culture and history plays on the black man. Fanon delves into studies done by others and compares or rejects ideas put forth by them either with by presenting his own experiences or a generalistic view of the colonized Martinique land.

Fanon digresses frequently from topics of discussion and jumps around wildly in some of the chapters. But overall the book is well written and makes you think and begs you to put your own experience and thought into it.