American Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 11 (1990) Winner
Martin Gardiner Bernal
マーティン・ガーディナー・バーナル
Martin Gardiner Bernal
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1937-03-10 （Hampstead, London, England）
- Died
- 2013-06-09 （Ithaca, New York, U.S.） age 76
- Nationality
- British
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Hampstead, London → Ithaca, New York, U.S. → Resident and faculty at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Career
- Occupations
- Political historian, Classical scholar, University professor, Historian
- Active Years
- 1961-2013
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (Government and Near Eastern Studies), Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
- Influenced By
- J. D. Bernal (father), Cyrus Gordon, Michael Astour
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dartington Hall School | — | — | — | — | United Kingdom |
| King's College, Cambridge | Oriental Studies (Tripos) | Chinese language and history | BA (First-class honours); PhD | 1950s–1965 | United Kingdom |
| Peking University | — | — | — | — | China |
| University of California, Berkeley | — | — | — | — | United States |
| Harvard University | — | — | — | — | United States |
Dartington Hall School
Country:
United Kingdom
Secondary education (per biography)
King's College, Cambridge
Oriental Studies (Tripos)
/ Chinese language and history
Degree:
BA (First-class honours); PhD
Period:
1950s–1965
Year of Graduation:
1965
Country:
United Kingdom
First-class honours at undergraduate level; PhD awarded 1965 (thesis: Chinese Socialism to 1913)
Peking University
Country:
China
Study/research stay
University of California, Berkeley
Country:
United States
Research stay supported by Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship
Harvard University
Country:
United States
Graduate research stay (Harkness Fellowship period)
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | American Book Award | Black Athena | — | Before Columbus Foundation | 受賞 |
American Book Award
1990
Work:
Black Athena
Organization:
Before Columbus Foundation
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
Chinese Socialism to 1907
1976 History / Political historyA study of the development and historical trajectory of socialist thought in modern China.
Modern Chinese historySocialist thought
Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785–1985
1987 Ancient history / Comparative culture / HumanitiesA controversial work challenging conventional accounts of the origins of ancient Greek civilization, arguing for substantial Afroasiatic influences from Egypt and Syria-Palestine.
Ancient Greek historyCultural contactLanguage and origin debates
Cadmean Letters: The Transmission of the Alphabet to the Aegean and Further West Before 1400 B.C.
1990 Archaeology / History of writingExamines the transmission of the alphabet to the Aegean and further west before 1400 B.C. from archaeological and linguistic perspectives.
Origins of writingCultural transmission
Black Athena, Volume II: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence
1991 Ancient history / Scholarly researchFurther develops the arguments of Volume I by supplying archaeological and documentary evidence.
Archaeological evidenceDocumentary research
Black Athena, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence
2006 Linguistics / HistoryAnalyzes relationships between ancient Greek and Semitic languages from a linguistic perspective, reinforcing claims made in earlier volumes.
Comparative linguisticsAncient history
Geography of a Life
2012 Memoir / AutobiographyA memoir reflecting on his life and scholarly career.
AutobiographyScholarly life
Bibliography
- Vietnam Signposts (1966)
- Chinese Socialism to 1907 (1976)
- Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vol. I (1987)
- Cadmean Letters (1990)
- Black Athena, Vol. II (1991)
- Black Athena, Vol. III (2006)
- Geography of a Life (2012)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Scholarly and evidence-focused, yet polemical and provocativeComparative and cross-disciplinary approach
- Recurring Motifs
- Reassessment of cultural contactReexamination of origin debates through languagePerspective from the periphery
Legacy
Martin Bernal provoked major debate with his three-volume Black Athena, prompting interdisciplinary reassessment of the origins of ancient Greece. His work emphasized cultural contact and language-contact perspectives and is recognized for challenging conventional frameworks, while also attracting substantial methodological and interpretive criticism.
Archives
- Cornell University archives
Quotes
-
The scattered Jewish components of my ancestry would have given nightmares to assessors trying to apply the Nuremberg 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.
Source: Black Athena (preface) / Interview
Trivia
- His father was the prominent physicist J. D. Bernal (John Desmond Bernal).
- He studied at Peking University early in his career.
- The Black Athena trilogy sparked major controversy in academia.
- Taught for many years at Cornell University and became Professor Emeritus in 2001.