“[Black Athena Writes Back] will garner wide readership and spark interest in [Bernal’s] previous books.” — Vanessa Bush , Booklist
“The Black Athena controversy rumbles on. . . . [Bernal’s] critics may believe that they are destroying his arguments, but in fact they are giving them new depth and subtlety.” — Thomas Harrison , Times Literary Supplement
"Black Athena Writes Back is a definitive defense by Bernal. It should be in the reference sections of all serious scholarly libraries." — Richard Lobban , International Journal of African Historical Studies
"[T]he book provides fascinating and informative reading, whether as a study of historical evidences and their interpretation, a methodological study, or an intellectual and cultural event." — Yaacov Shavit, Journal of World History
"[T]he topic is important to a number of academic fields, politics, and different constituencies; and thus until the issues are ‘resolved,’ the debate must continue. As always, Bernal raises fascinating problems concerning what is ‘fact’ and who decides it in a complicated world."
— Tammi J. Schneider , Religious Studies Review
"Bernal forces classicists to confront the history of our discipline." — Jeremy McInerney , History: Review of New Books
"Bernal is developing a consistent and detailed alternative history of the ancient eastern Mediterranean. . . . [A] great and essential read, even if one has no knowledge of any of the previous volumes and debates." — Anthony Lowstedt , New African
"This is an erudite, richly scholarly book. . . . [W]ell written and organized. . . ." — Emeka Aniagolu , The Historian
Named one of The Independent’s Books of the Year. “I follow with continuing fascination the astonishing academic debate on deep history in Martin Bernal’s Black Athena Writes Back—one of the strangest intellectual confrontations of our time.” — Margaret Drabble , The Independent (UK)
“Black Athena must be the most discussed book on the ancient history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Bible. . . . [It] enjoys such continued attention because it raises important scholarly questions, and because it makes a difficult subject available to a large audience.” — Mario Liverani, in Black Athena Revisited
“[F]ew books published about the ancient world since World War II have provoked as much interest both inside and outside the discipline of classics as has Black Athena.” — Guy MacLean Rogers, in Black Athena Revisited
“A fascinating and important debate. As a lay reader I find both the scholarly arguments and the human differences very gripping. Bernal tells the story of the process of academic diffusion very vividly and gives us the kind of background we don't usually discover.” — Margaret Drabble