In reviewing An African Classical Age for the Annuals of the American Academy, Ronald Atkinson calls it "not easy or light reading", but concludes that "the result is a remarkably rich, evocative social and cultural history…” and that it "will itself become a classic and shape future scholarship in early African history for many years to come".[1] The late Kennell Jackson of Stanford, writing in The Historian, says that "by the book’s midpoint, the immensity of his synthesis becomes apparent, as well as Ehret’s achievement as a historical conceptualizer.