Description: Michael F. Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis, the theory that whites had lived in Africa since antiquity, which held sway in Europe and in Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Review Quotes: "A well-researched, well-documented, and highly readable account." --Kirkus
"A masterful biography of an idea: the life story of the Hamitic hypothesis and its relationship to the histories of exploration, science, ideas of human origins, and much much more." - New Books Network"Extraordinary...For a book that focuses on long-dead explorers and old scientific texts, The Lost White Tribe feels startlingly relevant to the present political moment." - Religion Dispatches"By using the lost white tribe narratives of the nineteenth century to tell the story of the Hamitic thesis, Robinson delightfully combines the history of exploration, science, and adventure writing into something new: the transnational biography of an idea." -Andrew Evans, American Historical Review