George James (writer)

Biography

James was born in Georgetown, Guyana. His parents were Reverend Linch B. and Margaret E. James. George earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Durham University in England and gained his doctorate at Columbia University in New York. He was Professor of Logic and Greek at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina before working at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. James died soon after publishing Stolen Legacy in 1954.

Stolen Legacy

James was the author of the widely circulated Stolen Legacy: The Greeks Were Not the Authors of Greek Philosophy, But the People of North Africa, Commonly Called the Egyptians (also known as Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy), first published in 1954.

In this book, James claims that, among other things, the ancient Greeks were not the original authors of Greek philosophy, which he argues was mainly based on ideas and concepts that were borrowed without acknowledgement, or indeed stolen, from the ancient Egyptians. He argues that Alexander the Great "invaded Egypt and captured the Royal Library at Alexandria and plundered it", that Aristotle's ideas came from these stolen books and that he established his school within the library. The book draws on the writings of freemasonry to support its claim that Greco-Roman mystery religion originates from an "Egyptian Mystery System".

James invokes Greek sources such as Herodotus who describe the cultural debt of Greece to Egypt. He also mentions prominent Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato who are said to have studied in Egypt. He attributes Democritus's use of the term atom (indivisible particle) to the Egyptian deity Atum, who symbolizes completeness and indivisibility.

Responses

Stolen Legacy and its thesis have been controversial since the book was published. Ronald B. Levinson dismissed the book in a 1955 review, writing that "only social psychologists and collectors of paradoxes will find here grist for their mills" and presenting some of James's claims as self-evidently ridiculous.

William Leo Hansberry in 1955 wrote in support of the book's key premises, including the conclusion

that in view of the remarkable similarities between the basic ideas and concepts as expressed in the Egyptian inscriptions and in the writings and teachings of the Greek philosophers, it may be very reasonably assumed that it was from the Egyptian priests and teachers with whom the Greeks associated during their travels in Egypt that they acquired many, if not most, of the philosophical concepts which they, without mentioning their origin, subsequently passed off as their own and for which they have been so long—and so unjustly—renowned.

Hansberry acknowledged that the book might contain some errors and would upset Hellnophiles, but pointed to the work of established historians such as James H. Breasted in support of the theory of Egyptian influence on Hellenistic culture.

Stolen Legacy has strongly influenced the Afrocentric school of history, including leading exponents such as Asa Hillaird, Yosef Ben-Jochannan and Molefi Kete Asante.

Lefkowitz–Bernal arguments

In the 1990s, classics professor Mary Lefkowitz emerged as a prominent critic of Afrocentrism and of James. Her critique of Stolen Legacy makes the following arguments:

Martin Bernal, author of the Black Athena trilogy which also argues for Egyptian influence on Greece, in turn criticized Lefkowitz for poor sourcing, double standards for evidence, and omission of key details. Bernal points to modern scholarship indicating pre-Hellenistic origins of the Hermetic Corpus. Bernal argues that archaeological data, as well as Greek and Latin sources, demonstrate a diffusion of the cult of Isis, mystery religion, and initiation ceremonies from Egypt to Greece. Finally, Bernal recapitulates the historiographical argument of Black Athena Volume 1 that the "Ancient Model" of Egyptian influence on Greece was standard until it was eclipsed in the 19th century, for ideological reasons, by the "Aryan Model".

Lefkowitz, replying in the same journal, wrote that Greek philosophy borrowed from Egypt, but neither "borrowed massively" nor "stole", and Greece was influenced by other cultures as well. She responds to his critique of her reading of Diodorus and clarifies other points. She remonstrates that Bernal uses needlessly charged terms such as "attack", "rage", and "Aryan", which distract from the matter at hand.