Editing Martin Bernal

{{Short description|British political historian (1937- 2013)}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
'''Martin Gardiner Bernal''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ər|ˈ|n|ɑː|l}}; 10 March 1937<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Margaret Gardiner]</ref> – 9 June 2013<ref name = "Cornell Chron">{{Citation
| url   = http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/06/professor-martin-bernal-black-athena-author-dies-76
| title = Professor Martin Bernal, 'Black Athena' author, dies at 76
| work  = Cornell Chronicle
| publisher  = [[Cornell University]]
| accessdate = 15 June 2012
}}</ref>)
was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history. He was a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at [[Cornell University]]. He is best known for his work ''[[Black Athena]]'', a well-known controversial<ref>Mary R. Lefkowitz, ''Black Athena Revisited'', The University of North Carolina Press, 1996, [https://books.google.com/books?id=97jwg1Xwpj0C&q=Black+Athena+revisited on Google books]</ref><ref>Jacques Berlinerblau, ''Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals'', Rutgers University Press, 1999.</ref> work which argues that the culture, language, and political structure of [[Ancient Greek civilisation|Ancient Greece]] contained substantial influences from [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] and [[Syria (region)|Syria-Palestine]].

==Early life and education==
Bernal was born and grew up in [[Hampstead]], London, the son of the physicist [[J. D. Bernal|John Desmond Bernal]] and artists' patron [[Margaret Gardiner (art collector)|Margaret Gardiner]].<ref name ="Guardian">[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/21/martin-bernal Martin Bernal obituary, the Guardian, 21 June 2013, accessed 4 June 2015]</ref> He was educated at [[dartington Hall#Dartington Hall School|Dartington Hall School]] and then at [[King's College, Cambridge]], where he was awarded a degree in 1961 with first-class Honours in the Oriental Studies [[Tripos]].<ref name="Cornell">{{cite web|url=http://www.arts.cornell.edu/nes/people/bernal.html |title=CV |publisher =Cornell University | accessdate = 12 February 2009 }}</ref> At that time he specialised in the language and history of China, and spent some time at the [[Peking University]]. He carried on as a graduate student at Cambridge, and with the assistance of the [[Harkness Fellowship|Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship]] also at [[University of California, Berkeley]] and [[Harvard University]], finishing his PhD in Cambridge in 1965 with thesis titled ''Chinese Socialism to 1913'' when he was elected a [[fellow]] at King's.<ref name="Cornell"/>

==Career==
In 1972 Bernal moved to [[Cornell University]] in [[New York (state)|New York]], United States. There he resided in the [[Telluride House]] as a faculty fellow,<ref name="Interview-Bernal">{{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Walter |last2=Bernal |first2=Martin |title=An Interview with Martin Bernal |journal=Social Text |date=1993 |volume=35 |issue=35 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.2307/466441 |jstor=466441 }}</ref> and became a full professor in 1988. He taught there for the rest of his career, retiring in 2001.

Initially he taught Government Studies at Cornell, and continued his research on modern Chinese history. Under the impact of the [[Vietnam War]]<ref name=BAIP>''Black Athena'', Vol I, Preface</ref> he had also developed an interest in Vietnamese history and culture, and learned the Vietnamese language.

From about 1975, however, Bernal underwent a radical shift in his interests. In his own words:
<blockquote>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. I had always known that the latter spoke [[Semitic languages]], but it came as quite a shock to learn that Hebrew and Phoenician were mutually intelligible and that serious linguists treated both as a ''dialect'' of a single Canaanite language.</blockquote><blockquote>During this time, I was beginning to study Hebrew and I found what seemed to me a number of striking similarities between it and Greek ...<ref name=BAIP/></blockquote>

Bernal came to the conclusion that ancient Greek accounts of Egyptian influence on their civilisation should be taken seriously. He had been interested in ancient Egypt since childhood, in part inspired by his grandfather Sir [[Alan Gardiner]].<ref name=BAIP/> Bernal's new direction was strengthened by his discovery of the work of [[Cyrus Gordon]] and [[Michael Astour]].<ref name=BAIP/> In due course he wrote ''[[Black Athena]]''.

Bernal also wrote the book ''Cadmean Letters'', devoted to the origins of the [[Greek alphabet]]. He devoted his next twenty years to writing the next two volumes of ''Black Athena'', with the second volume devoted to archaeological and documentary evidence, and the third to linguistic evidence. He also spent considerable time defending his work.

He became [[Professor Emeritus]] upon his retirement in 2001.

==Personal life==
In 1961, Bernal married Judy Pace (later known as [[Judith Dunn]]).<ref name="WW DUNN">{{cite web|title=DUNN, Prof. Judith Frances|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U14348|website=Who's Who 2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|accessdate=19 April 2017|date=November 2016}}</ref> Together, they had one daughter and twin sons.<ref name="Guardian" /> They later divorced.<ref name="WW DUNN" /> His second wife, Leslie Miller-Bernal, and his five children survived him.<ref name = "Cornell Chron"/><ref name=BA3P>''Black Athena'', Vol III, Preface</ref>

==Books==
* {{cite book|author= Bernal, Martin|title=Vietnam Signposts|year=1966|publisher=Views Quarterly Review|location=London}} (pamphlet)
* {{cite book|author= Bernal, Martin|title=Chinese Socialism to 1907|url= https://archive.org/details/chinesesocialism0000bern|url-access= registration|isbn=978-0-8014-0915-8|year=1976|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|location=Ithaca}}
* {{cite book| title= Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece, 1785-1985| url= https://archive.org/details/blackathenaafroa00bern| url-access= registration|author= Bernal, Martin| publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]| year= 1987|isbn = 978-0-8135-1277-8 }}<ref name=FAB>Volume I of Black Athena was first published by [[Free Association Books]] in the UK. Rutgers then published it in the USA. Subsequent volumes were issued by both companies in parallel.</ref>
* {{cite book|author= Bernal, Martin|title=Cadmean Letters: The Transmission of the Alphabet to the Aegean and Further West Before 1400 B.C.|publisher= [[Eisenbrauns]]|year= 1990| isbn=978-0-931464-47-8}}
* {{cite book|title=Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume II: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence|author= Bernal, Martin|publisher=Rutgers University Press| year=1991}}<ref name=FAB/>
* {{cite book|title=Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics|editor=Moore, David Chioni |year=2001|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|isbn= 978-0-8223-2706-6 }}
* {{cite book| title=Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence|author= Bernal, Martin |publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1-85343-799-1 }}
* {{cite book|author= Bernal, Martin|title=Geography of a Life|isbn=978-1-4653-6375-6|year=2012|publisher=[[Xlibris]]|location=Bloomington}}

===Responses===
* {{cite book|title=Black Athena Revisited|url=https://archive.org/details/blackathenarevis00lefk_0|url-access=registration|author=Lefkowitz, Mary|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|editor=Guy M. Rogers |year=1996|publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]}} (critical response)
* {{cite book|title=Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History|url=https://archive.org/details/notoutofafricaho00lefk_0|url-access=registration|author=Lefkowitz, Mary|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|year=1997|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|isbn=978-0-465-09838-5 }}
* {{cite book|title=History Lesson: A Race Odyssey|author=Lefkowitz, Mary|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|year=2008|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]}}
* {{cite book|title=Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals|author=Berlinerblau, Jacques|year=1999|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|author-link=Jacques Berlinerblau}}
* {{cite book|title=We Can't Go Home Again: An Argument About Afrocentrism|year= 2001|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|author=Clarence E. Walker|author-link=Clarence E. Walker|isbn=978-0195095715}}
* {{cite book|title=Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions|year=2011|publisher=[[Reaktion Books]]|author=Ronald H. Fritze|author-link=Ronald H. Fritze|isbn=978-1861898173}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Martin Bernal", ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature''. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr. 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-313-32973-9}}. pp 114–15.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110324080337/http://vivo.cornell.edu/humanities/individual/vivo/individual25949 Martin Bernal page at Cornell University]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100622140640/http://government.arts.cornell.edu/assets/faculty/cv/bernal_cv.pdf Martin Bernal short CV at Cornell University]

{{American Book Awards}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernal, Martin}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2013 deaths]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:American classical scholars]]
[[Category:Classical scholars of Cornell University]]
[[Category:Fellows of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:British expatriate academics in the United States]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Scholars of ancient Greek history]]
[[Category:People educated at Dartington Hall School]]
[[Category:Afrocentrists]]
[[Category:British people of Portuguese-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:British people of Spanish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:British people of Italian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American Book Award winners]]