The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century Paperback – June 30, 2020

For years I wondered why the ancients anticipated with such horror the idea of a person’s dead body lying unburied a prey to birds and beasts. Since they’re dead anyway what’s the difference I thought. Then I read in Gerald Horne’s breezy history of the long sixteenth century, The Dawning of the Apocalypse, that after the Spanish in Florida massacred the French Huguenots, the beard and skin of the Huguenot leader, Jean Ribaut, was “ sent to His Catholic Majesty, and his [Jean’s] head split into quarters.” (p.111). Now since a human instinctively regards its body as a unity, anticipating a piece of it flying south in the gut of a gull, a piece winding north in the stomach of a snake, and especially, if only out of habit, trying to keep track of four pieces of a head would probably give anyone, ancient or modern, an instant headache.

A must read! History is not a racial construct of black history versus white history, but the telling of facts woven through time. There is only human history and Gerald Horne once again delivers historical facts overlooked by mainstream historians. He is one of our great historians and his books should be on the shelves of anyone who wants to be well informed.

How it is being said for ALL to overstand how and why

Horne's account of the development of "whiteness" is deep and engaging. His qualitative examination of slavery as an institution practiced by the Ottomans, Spain, Portugal, England, and the U.S. provides the reader with an insight that few other academics discussing the matter provide. I can not help but recall Sakai's "Settlers" and Allen's "The Invention of the White Race" while engaging with Horne's work. There is also more than a passing similarity with Losurdoin terms of prose and critical assessment of European whiteness and/as religious radicalism.If there is a complaint it involves Horne's non-sequential use of the temporal context to make his points. This may be more of a comprehension failure on my part, but sentences or paragraphs jumping from say the 15th century, then to the 12th, then to the 14th or some other were tough to follow; though grasping the points being made is worth the work.I really cannot recommend this work more.

I edited this book. It is a remarkable examination of the roots of white supremacy and the enslavement of Africans in the United States and other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Professor Horne's breadth scholarship is breathtaking.

Better than I thought

(The book's naked boards are of a material that easily smudges.) The author has significant information to share. It's difficult to follow because of poor editing

This book presents a lot of good information, but its strident tone and excessive rhetorical flourishes get in the way, I think. How many times does the term "repulsive spawn" have to be used to describe the US? Once would have been plenty! Full disclosure: I stopped after having read the introduction.

I really struggled to read this book. I felt that I was just ploughing through a torrent of names and dates with absolutely no idea where I was heading.I have never felt so disengaged with a book.The random insertion of climate catastrophe at the end spoke volumes.I have no idea what the aim of this book is supposed to be.I'll leave it for more erudite reviewers to better analyse this book.