George Granville Monah James (November 9, 1893 – June 30, 1956)[1] was a Guyanese-American historian and author, known for his 1954 book Stolen Legacy, which argues that Greek philosophy and religion originated in ancient Egypt.
Historians Wilson J. Moses, Albert Gelpi, Mary Lefkowitz, Ronald H. Fritze and philosopher Robert Todd Carroll all call the book and its claims pseudohistorical.
The Masons in turn derived their misconceptions about Egyptian mystery and initiation rites from the eighteenth century work of fiction Sethos [...] (1731) by the Abbe Jean Terrasson (1670-1750), a professor of Greek.
[4]Philosopher Ronald B. Levinson dismissed the book in a 1955 review, writing that "only social psychologists and collectors of paradoxes will find here grist for their mills" and presenting some of James's claims as self-evidently ridiculous.
[11] Professor of philosophy Kristian Urstad, reviewing the book in the academic journal Kritike, states that it is not a genuine work of scholarship, but rather "a plea for justice and reformation, a call to turn the tide of racism washing over his time".
[12] He writes that: Though one can appreciate what James was trying to do for African people and tradition, especially given the context in which this work was written, this is a book wrought with historical inaccuracies, sketchy dating, dubious referencing, and philosophical misunderstandings.
[14]Stolen Legacy has strongly influenced the Afrocentric school of history, including leading exponents such as Asa Hillaird, Yosef Ben-Jochannan and Molefi Kete Asante.