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Henry James (1843-1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. He spent his early life in America and studied in Geneva, London and Paris during his adolescence to gain the worldly experience so prized by his father. He lived in Newport, went briefly to Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began to contribute both criticism and tales to magazines. He went on to publish beloved novels such asDaisy Miller (1878),Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Princess Casamassima (1886), andThe Turn of the Screw (1898), in addition to three large novels of the new century, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). Leo Bersani, volume editor, is professor emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. His works includeMarcel Proust- The Fictions of Lifeand ofArt; A Future for Astyanax- Character and Desire in Literature; The Culture of Redemption; andHomos.
Against the grain of much contemporary thought that embraces ethnocentrism, Paul Gilroy has issued a stirring challenge to recognize the modern world as a cultural hybrid. The Black Atlantic is a wonderful chapter in the global intellectual history of the next century...Drawing on work in many disciplines, Gilroy provides a vivid alternative to competing positions in the current culture wars. He briefly outlines an intellectual rapprochement between Zionism and black nationalism, for example, and some of his most polemical remarks are reserved for those Afrocentrists who proclaim a linear inheritance from Africa but wish to ignore the intervening cultural hybridization produced by slavery...Present anxiety about the supposed disuniting and fraying of America's national culture, or about its forced concentration into an assimilating mold, might be significantly allayed if readers would pay serious attention to the invigorating claims of The Black Atlantic . -- Eric J. Sundquist Newsday
