George James
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George Granville Monah James was born in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. His parents were Reverend Linch B. and Margaret E. James. George studied at Durham University in Britain and after a period at the University of London he gained his doctorate at Columbia University, New York, USA. He then qualified to teach mathematics, Latin, and Greek. Later he was Professor of Logic and Greek at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina for two years, before working at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff.
Dr. James was the author of the widely circulated Stolen Legacy: The Greeks Were Not the Authors of Greek Philosophy, But the People of North Africa, Commonly Called the Egyptians. It was first published in 1954 and is still in print.
In this book, Dr. James attempts to prove, among others things, that the Greeks were not the authors of Greek philosophy, that so-called Greek philosophy was mainly based on ideas and concepts that were borrowed, without acknowledgement, or indeed stolen from the ancient Egyptians. Stolen Legacy was highly controversial, in large part because of several dubiously historical assertions like the following excerpt:
[blockquote]"Greek philosophy is somewhat of a drama, whose chief actors were Alexander the Great, Aristotle and his successors in the peripatetic school, and the Emperor Justinian. Alexander invaded Egypt and captured the Royal Library at Alexandria and plundered it. Aristotle made a library at Alexandria and plundered books, while his school occupied the building and used it as a research center. Finally, Justinian, the Roman Emperor, abolished the Temples and schools of philosophy, i.e., another name for the Egyptian Mysteries, which the Greeks claimed as their product, and on account of which, they have been falsely praised and honored for centuries by the world, as its greatest philosophers and thinkers. This contribution to civilization was really and truly made by the Egyptians and the African continent, but not by the Greeks and the European continent."
Dr. James's died shortly after Stolen Legacy's publication.
