The best history books about everyone and for everyone

Why am I passionate about this?

Dr. Onyeka Nubia is a pioneering and internationally recognised historian, writer, and presenter. He is reinventing our perceptions of diversity, the Renaissance, and British history. Onyeka is the leading historian on the status and origins of Africans in pre-colonial England from antiquity to 1603. He has helped academia and the general public to entirely new perspectives on otherness, colonialism, imperialism, and World Wars I and II. He has written over fifty articles on Englishness, Britishness, and historical method and they have appeared in the most popular UK historical magazines and periodicals including History Today and BBC History Magazine. Onyeka has been a consultant and presenter for several television programmes on BBC.


I wrote...

Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins

By Onyeka Nubia,

Book cover of Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins

What is my book about?

Do we think of English history as a book with white pages and no black letters in it? Tudor history is often portrayed as a ‘scared white space’ populated by personages such as: Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, and of course William Shakespeare. But in Tudor times, Englishmen such as Thomas More, William Harrison, George Best, and Francis Bacon, described Africans ‘living amongst them.’ These Africans such as Henrie Anthonie Jetto, Mary Fillis of Morisco, Catalina de Motril, and Fortunatus left their mark on English society.

This book for the first time reveals that Africans in Tudor England were not all inferior slaves and that their history, is all our histories.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Black British History: New Perspectives

Onyeka Nubia Why did I love this book?

New Perspectives shows us that Black British history is a complex field of historiography. No longer should we look at it as a sketchy, speculative, politically correct apologia for historical investigation. But rather see, that for more than three generations scholars have worked very hard to establish a vigorous pedagogy. It is a pedagogy that supports wider British histories, but subverts the traditional trajectories of those narratives. This book introduces us to some of the major developments in Black British history and it is an excellent place to start for a reader who knows very little about this subject.         

By Hakim Adi,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Black British History as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For over 1500 years before the Empire Windrush docked on British shores, people of African descent have played a significant and far-ranging role in the country's history, from the African soldiers on Hadrian's Wall to the Black British intellectuals who made London a hub of radical, Pan-African ideas. But while there has been a growing interest in this history, there has been little recognition of the sheer breadth and diversity of the Black British experience, until now.

This collection combines the latest work from both established and emerging scholars of Black British history. It spans the centuries from the first…


Book cover of Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850

Onyeka Nubia Why did I love this book?

Northup provocatively challenges our perceptions of the early modern world. By offering a relativist view and investigating the primary sources written by Africans themselves the Africans of the early modern period. They reveal much about sixteenth and seventeenth-century Europe, as well as African civilizations.     

By David Northup,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This groundbreaking book examines the full range of African-European encounters from an unfamiliar African perspective rather than from the customary European one. By featuring vivid life stories of individual Africans and drawing upon their many recorded sentiments, David Northrup presents African perspectives that persuasively challenge stereotypes about African-European relations as they unfolded in Africa, Europe, and the Atlantic world between 1450 and 1850. The text features thematically organized chapters that explore first impressions, religion and politics, commerce and culture, imported goods and technology, the Middle Passage, and Africans in Europe. In addition, Northrup offers a thoughtful examination of Africans' relations…


Book cover of In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process 1: The Colonial Period

Onyeka Nubia Why did I love this book?

We may think we know about colonial America. Higginbotham reveals that we are just beginning to learn about this geographical space and this period of history. Higginbotham shows another ‘America,’ still dominated by the laws of European countries such as Britain, France, the Dutch Republics, and Spain. This is an America that may be unfamiliar to us and it is a place where Africans could still negotiate their status in the courts of law. This book offers a very detailed exploration of a fascinating moment in American history. And shows us what the founding of the United States of America really meant to the Africans, who had already been there for more than a hundred years. 

By A. Leon Higginbotham,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In the Matter of Color as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Focusing on the actions and attitudes of the courts, legislatures, and public servants in six colonies, Judge Higginbotham shows ways in which the law has contributed to injustices suffered by Black Americans


Book cover of The Healers

Onyeka Nubia Why did I love this book?

If there is one book you read on: colonialism, pre-colonial West Africa, and African traditional religions, let it be this one. The Healers is fiction, but it reads like a storybook-documentary, with moments of tragedy, horror, and despair unfolding on every page. Above all Armah shows, that Africans had civilizations and culture and that they were capable of resisting European hegemony. This book is a fluid, poetic and masterful classic.   

By Ayi Kwei Armah,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Healers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


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Who Will Take Care of Me When I'm Old?: Plan Now to Safeguard Your Health and Happiness in Old Age

By Joy Loverde,

Book cover of Who Will Take Care of Me When I'm Old?: Plan Now to Safeguard Your Health and Happiness in Old Age

Joy Loverde

New book alert!

What is my book about?

Everything you need to know to plan for your own safe, financially secure, healthy, and happy old age.

For those who have no support system in place, the thought of aging without help can be a frightening, isolating prospect. Whether you have friends and family ready and able to help you or not, growing old does not have to be an inevitable decline into helplessness. It is possible to maintain a good quality of life in your later years, but having a plan is essential. Who Will Take Care of Me When I'm Old? Equips readers with everything they need to prepare on their own:

Advice on the tough medical, financial, and housing decisions to come Real solutions to create a support network Questions about aging solo readers don't know to ask Customizable worksheets and checklists that help keep plans on course Guidance on new products, services, technology, and resources

Who Will Take Care of Me When I'm Old?: Plan Now to Safeguard Your Health and Happiness in Old Age

By Joy Loverde,

What is this book about?

For those who have no support system in place, the thought of aging without help can be a frightening, isolating prospect. Whether you have friends and family ready and able to help you or not, growing old does not have to be an inevitable decline into helplessness. It is possible to maintain a good quality of life in your later years, but having a plan is essential. WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF ME WHEN I'M OLD? equips readers with everything they need to prepare on their own:

* Advice on the tough medical, financial, and housing decisions to come
*…


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