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Reviewed by Deepak Menon for Readers' Favorite
The title of this little book - The Evolution of the Modern American Black - seems indicative of what it is about: the lost heritage of the modern American Black and their evolution to their present role in American society. The 94-page count of this book is deceptive. Between the lines, Richard Castagner has interwoven many facts and historical perspectives, requiring the serious critical reader to crosscheck by referring to highly researched texts, books and published papers on the subject. At the beginning of the book, there is a little sentence which I will quote: “History is thus written by winners.” This thought alone is gripping. As an author, I wondered who was fighting the battle for the redemption of the lost history of the ‘American Black,’ and who were the ultimate winners?
Richard Castagner’s book throws up interesting observations, such as the quest for equal legal and political rights giving way to efforts that resulted in actually increasing, rather than eliminating Black under-achievement and dependency because of what he calls “welfare plantations.” The book delves into prehistory with a timeline of over 5000 years. It examines the differences arising in the Americas because of immigration, as well as slavery, where people of different cultures and races were brought to America. This led to ultimately swamping the nation with diversity and erasing indigenous as well as imported culture. The treatment of a premise that blacks in prehistory were the first to occupy America, long before the Spanish and other nations, is very illuminating. Castagner writes that Blacks also had a profound influence on the culture, religion and evolution of many nations of the world including India, China and the Mediterranean, which is fascinating. This book has a profound message about the dignity inherent in personal moral responsibility and the dignity inherent in freedom. There is an element of “current personal political opinion” in the book which is debatable. Four stars for a fine effort.
