Characterised by Andrea Lee in The New York Times as "part travelogue, part cri de coeur",[1] the collection chronicles the author's journey through multiracial Europe of the 1980s, "guided by a moral compass rather than a map" and "seeking personal definition within the parameters of growing up black in Europe".

[2] Maya Jaggi of The Guardian has called it "a coolly indignant dissection of the 'sickness in Europe's soul'".

Rarely, however, has the black writer attempted to grapple with such impassioned issues among Europeans; it is an enticing subject, for which Mr. Phillips would appear to be exceptionally equipped.

"[4] Charles R. Johnson in the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Novelist Caryl Phillips' brief, eye-opening book, The European Tribe, is one black man's answer to Tocqueville's classic [Democracy in America], and may well become a classic of cultural exploration itself.

...Phillips' true theme in his travels everywhere is the global disenfranchisement of black people at a time when 'America has conquered Europe economically, politically, and culturally.'