eep-rooted prejudices reach general readers with considerable slowness.
While it is not possible to treat but briefly a large subject in such small
compass, the facts set forth by the author will put many persons on their
guard against individuals who continue to spread misinformation about the
Negro race.

The book is divided into twelve chapters, contains a helpful index, has a
topically arranged list of books suggested for further reading, and an
index. All of the chapters make interesting reading; but those treating of
the achievements in state building and general culture of the ancient
African Negro are especially stimulating. The author points out that in
Egypt, both as mixed Semitic-Negroids and pure blacks from Ethiopia, Negro
blood shared in producing the civilization of Egypt. Another center of
Negro civilization was the Soudan. There strong Negro empires like Songhay
and Melle developed under Mohammedan influence and existed for many
centuries. In West Africa there was a flourishing group of Negro city
states, the most famous of these being the Yoruban group. Recent
discoveries of Frobenius in these parts of the continent show that the
people reached a high stage of development in the terra cotta, bronze,
glass, weaving, and iron industry. In the regions about the Great Lakes,
inhabited largely by the Bantu, are found many worked over gold and silver
mines, old irrigation systems, remains of hundreds of groups of stone
buildings and fortifications. The author explains that the decline of this
ancient culture was due to internal wars, Mohammedan conquest, and
especially the ravages of the slave trade. The fact of the existence of
such culture in the past stands as evidence of the capacity of the race to
achieve.

It is worth noting what the author thinks about "the future relation of the
Negro race to the rest of the world." He states that the "clear modern
philosophy ... assigns to the white race alone the hegemony of the world
and assumes that other races, and particularly the Negro race, will either
be content to serve the interests of the whites or die out before their
all-conquering march." Of the several plans of solutions of the Negro
problems since the emancipation from chattel slavery he tells us that
practically all have been directed by the motive of economic exploitation
for the benefit of white Europe. Because all dark races, and the white
workmen too, are included in this capitalistic program of