Thieves of Civilization: Afrocentric Attempts to Appropriate the Cultural Heritage of Native Americans and Latino Indo-Mestizos in America - Softcover

This book is a response to the assertions made over the years by Afrocentric extremists who claim that the first Americans were sub-Saharan Africans, that the first American “civilizations” were created by ancient Egypto-Nubian and West African visitors, and that other West Africans came to the Americas in the fourteenth century CE and again in the years before the European discovery of the Americas in 1492. The book is a point-by-point refutation of some of the most important claims made by Afrocentric extremists and a defense of the real contributions and the actual research that has been done on the cultures, civilizations and peoples of pre-Columbian America by scholars in various fields.

Gabriel Haslip-Viera is professor of social history at the City University of New York. He is the author of "Crime and Punishment in Late Colonial Mexico City, 1692-1810" (University of New Mexico Press, 1999), "Race, Identity and Indigenous Politics: Puerto Rican Neo-Taínos in the Diaspora and the Island" (Latino Studies Press, 2014), and also editor or co-editor of "Taíno Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics" (Markus Wiener, 2001), "Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City" (Markus Wiener, 2004), and "Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition" (University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).