Black Athena (3 vol set): The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Volume 3)

You know you have a long read ahead when the introduction (to the 3-volume Black Athena book) is almost a hundred pages. I am down for this read. See you in five years. ALso, there are some holes in the historical record (and the interpretation of that record) and Martin Bernal's masterwork is filling some of them in. Explicitly researched.

He was one of the most erudite, well-read, kindhearted human beings I ever met. I took his course "The Herodotean Moment" at Cornell in the mid-1980's. I still find his arguments compelling, and I suspect they will gain broad acceptance over time.