Anthony J. Barker – författare

The African Link, first published in 1978, breaks new ground in the studies of pre-19th century racial prejudice by emphasizing the importance of the West African end of the slave trade. For the British, the important African link was the commercial one which brought slave traders into contact with the peoples of West Africa. Far from remaining covert, their experiences were reflected in a vast array of scholarly, educational, popular and polemical writing. The picture of Black Africa that emerges from these writings is scarcely favourable – yet through the hostility of traders and moralising editors appear glimpses of respect and admiration for African humanity, skills and artefacts. The crudest generalisations about Black Africa are revealed as the inventions of credulous medieval geographers and of the late 18th century pro-slavery lobby. The author combines the more matter-of-fact reports of the intervening centuries with analysis of 17th and 18th century social and scientific theories to fill a considerable gap in the history of racial attitudes.

The African Link, first published in 1978, breaks new ground in the studies of pre-19th century racial prejudice by emphasizing the importance of the West African end of the slave trade. For the British, the important African link was the commercial one which brought slave traders into contact with the peoples of West Africa. Far from remaining covert, their experiences were reflected in a vast array of scholarly, educational, popular and polemical writing. The picture of Black Africa that emerges from these writings is scarcely favourable – yet through the hostility of traders and moralising editors appear glimpses of respect and admiration for African humanity, skills and artefacts. The crudest generalisations about Black Africa are revealed as the inventions of credulous medieval geographers and of the late 18th century pro-slavery lobby. The author combines the more matter-of-fact reports of the intervening centuries with analysis of 17th and 18th century social and scientific theories to fill a considerable gap in the history of racial attitudes.

Focusing on the attitudes and experiences of American female diplomats and spouses, this book examines the social, political, and cultural dimensions of American interactions with the Middle East and North Africa in the five decades after the Second World War. A turbulent period, marked by conflicts associated with the Cold War and decolonization, it was also characterized by changing attitudes to women at odds with those in Moslem societies. The impact of those changes is explored throughout this book, principally drawing on personal oral histories included in the ''Frontline Diplomacy'' collection, but reinforced by cables passing between regional U.S. embassies and the State Department in Washington DC.