Why read In Search of Brightest Africa?

Book cover of In Search of Brightest Africa: Reimagining the Dark Continent in American Culture, 1884-1936

Book description

Traces the history of the idea of Africa with an eye to recovering the emergence of a belief in ""Brightest Africa"" - a tradition that runs through American cultural and intellectual history with equal force to its ""Dark Continent"" counterpart.

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Why read it?

1 author picked In Search of Brightest Africa as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stephen Tuffnell

Author

This is a breathtaking book. The image of the “Dark Continent” seems so ingrained in our understanding of how Africa was perceived in the nineteenth century that it’s hard to overturn it. Jones does just that, showing how Pan-Africanists, naturalists, and filmmakers reimagined Africa as a site of regeneration for a variety of different ideas. But it’s about more than that – it’s a serious challenge to confront what you think you know about Africa today too.

From Stephen's list on The best books on the USA and the world in the nineteenth century.