New Books Network D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
May 2, 2026
D. Vance Smith, Princeton medievalist and author of Atlas’s Bones, explores Africa’s deep imprint on European culture. He traces African sources in classical and medieval literature and shows how colonial thought rewrote Africa’s role. The conversation highlights Egyptology, museum narratives, legal legacies, and forgotten African literary traditions.
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Europe's Unconscious Is African
- Smith reframes Europe’s deep cultural roots as indebted to Africa, calling Africa a shared unconscious for European culture rather than a marginal influence.
- He purposely avoided foregrounding Jameson's Marxist method to show the evidence of African influence is visible without heavy historicist theory.
Medieval Law Became Colonial Policy
- Colonial administrators often applied medieval English constitutional categories when governing African colonies, importing concepts like 'tribe' and feudal legal frameworks.
- Smith found marginalia in Oxford modern-history textbooks showing administrators emphasized medieval political organization and racial distinctions.
Egypt Made Exception To Erase Africa
- Egypt has been repeatedly carved out of Africa in European thought to preserve Africa as a zone of absence while still claiming Egyptian contributions to 'Western civilization.'
- 19th–20th century Egyptology racialized ancient Egypt (e.g., Flinders Petrie) and fed eugenic ideas into figures like Francis Galton.
