Dark Continent

"Michael McCarthy's volume ... deserves an important place in the growing body of scholarly literature devoted to ... the image of the black in Western consciousness.' Although this excellent book touches on diverse aspects of African-American relations, it is primarily concerned with the origins and development of American perceptions of an alien environment and people--perceptions, as McCarthy amply demonstrates, that were shaped as much by expectations and predispositions of Americans traveling and living in Africa over almost a century and a half as by the actual characteristics of the land and people they encountered there. Through a careful examination and sophisticated interpretation of the voluminous writings of dozens of Americans, McCarthy explains how a language of discourse' about the continent and its people evolved in the United States and ultimately shaped the nation's ideas about both in a particular way. ... [This] work ... provides rich insight into the complex relation between the physical and metaphysical Africa.' The significance of McCarthy's study is much larger than its brevity suggests."-American Historical Review