Was Alex Haleys book a fraud,because if you type alex haley a fraud in the search bar,you'll see what it says?

Answer 1

Was Alex Haley's book a fraud? NO

Roots is a novel, a very good novel. It gives an authentic and moving account of the effects of slavery on a family. It is NOT history or biography or autobiography; in other words, nonfiction. It is a novel, and a very good one.

Did Alex Haley plagiarize? Apparently he used some passages from Harold Courlander's The African without permission. That is plagiarism, for which he was required to compensate Courlander. The same thing happened to such a stellar, prize-winning historian as Doris Kearns Goodwin. Such a mistake, inadvertent or intentional, is extremely unfortunate and should require public apologies and recompense. But it doesn't mean Goodwin's books aren't immensely readable and valuable. Let subsequent copies provide appropriate acknowledgments.

Let's face it: As much as I admire Courlander's work, Haley's Roots did turn out to be a better book.

Was Alex Haley himself a fraud? Apparently he made mistakes in his genealogy. Apparently he made some public misstatements about the historicity of his novel. Perhaps he was even dishonest in claims he made for his research. The same thing turned out to be true of such a stellar, award-winning historian as Joseph Ellis. So he should (and did) receive public retribution. But that doesn't mean that Ellis's histories aren't among the most readable and informative that I have read, and his reputation as a superb classroom teacher remains intact.

I heard one of Haley's public addresses, long before Roots had been published as a novel, long before the television series, long before he was a celebrity. It was an intensely moving address. I am disappointed if he exaggerated or lied about some of the details. I hope all of this will eventually be clarified for the public. But even if he had confined himself to the "truth" that his detractors accept as factual, his address would have been moving and authentic. I am glad I heard him speak. Deceptive or not, his contribution to American culture in the post-1960s era was significant.

So was Alex Haley a plagiarist and/or a fraud? Maybe so. I don't know for sure. Even if he were, his novel still speaks the truth eloquently and imaginatively. It is fiction, not fact.

Is the story of Kunta Kinte a biography? No

Is the story of Kunta Kinte a fraud. No. Definitely not.

By the way, most of Shakespeare's plays were based on narratives borrowed or adapted or stolen outright from previous sources. Apparently that was expected of dramatists in his day. Does that make Shakespeare's play less interesting or valuable or of less literary value?

Ultimately it is not the author's life or character that makes great literature. It is the work itself, and the work alone.

Answer 2

No, but I'm sure that it was edited, for the TV show. The book was based upon his discoveries of his family geneology, with the same names of his family members. Even though the years may have been inaccurate, he got his story told. None of those sites say the story was just made up, and they say that he had a few quotes from the African. That still does not change the story line. I wouldn't go as far as calling him a fraud, because that would denote that he either plagarised the entire story, or that none of what was told were true. None of the articles would go as far as to say that.

In him quoting word for word some quotes from another written work to add to his own, that was plagerism, but I'm more than sure that he paid for it. That was what he went to court for, because the book and the movie were so successful, and he had not paid for the rights to a few quotes that he used. The articles are biased, in that they don't say specifically what quotes were obtained, but they infer that most of the book was taken from the African. This is one sided to make it look like Alex Haley's roots were totally a fraud.

I also found it interesting that in the worldnews.net, (the reporter was white), and he reported that the book was a fraud from beginning to end, and all he had to support that was a few inaccurate dates. He had also said that Haley said that the English, or White men, and not Arabs or other blacks took Kunta.
OK, and this proves something? I'll bet that same reporter didn't bat an eye when Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra (who wasn't white), or Charlton Heston played Moses (who wasn't white). Those articles are biased to try to make something good, into something bad.

Answer 3

I checked out some of those sites and from what I have read, apparently so but in stories told to me by my grandparents and my g-g grandmother, it wasn't too far from being the truth even if the story was pillaged from the novel "The African".

People (not ALL people but some) are going to do whatever they can to get where they want to be in this life no matter what the cost may be. Sad but true.


Hope you have a great day! and thanks for a good question. I learned something..