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Editorial Review Product Description
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) is the greatest of African American intellectuals - a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, Du Bois penned his epochal masterpiece, "The Souls of Black Folk", in 1903. It remains his most studied and popular work. Its insights into life at the turn of the 20th century still ring true.Amazon.com Review
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) is the greatest of African American intellectuals--a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, Du Bois penned his epochal masterpiece, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903. It remains his most studied and popular work; its insights into Negro life at the turn of the 20th century still ring true.With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that birthed gospel and the blues. The most memorable passages are contained in "On Booker T. Washington and Others," where Du Bois criticizes his famous contemporary's rejection of higher education and accommodationist stance toward white racism: "Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races," he writes, further complaining that Washington's thinking "withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens." The capstone of The Souls of Black Folk, though, is Du Bois' haunting, eloquent description of the concept of the black psyche's "double consciousness," which he described as "a peculiar sensation.... One ever feels this twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." Thanks to W.E.B. Du Bois' commitment and foresight--and the intellectual excellence expressed in this timeless literary gem--black Americans can today look in the mirror and rejoice in their beautiful black, brown, and beige reflections. --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more Customer Reviews (66) 
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Some Comments
Du Bois eloquently expresses the black experience circa 1903. More precisely, Du Bois was a mulatto. There are a lot of environmental explanations of black problems in the book. Du Bois asserts that the black man is not inferior, but is of one of the less developed races. He had confidence that education would lift the black man up and it was the white man's duty to do so. He explains that slavery caused such problems as black promiscuity, crime, weak marriages, lower educational and moral standards, and distrust of the police and the justice system. Even after slavery days have passed, the characteristics of that culture are passed through the generations.
One complaint he had about freeing the slaves was that they were not properly prepared to live as free men. They should have been given 40 acres and a mule and job skill training so that they could move up the economic ladder. Blacks were allowed to slide back down to the serfdom of being sharecroppers. The cotton crop began to yield less bounty and money because the land was worn out from over use and cotton prices fell, leaving the south in poverty, but unwilling to change its ways.
Although Du Bois was raised in the North, he had great sympathy for everyone living in the South and he often expressed its political problems from a socially conservative point of view. He was a gentleman reformer, not a fire-breathing revolutionary. His love of the liberal arts and higher education shines through as he asserts that blacks should be given higher education to learn about the finer things and the meaning of life. He contradicted Booker T. Washington's compromise with the white south's desire to keep blacks in their place. Washington thought that blacks should just learn trades and not worry about having political power, civil rights, and higher education.
Du Bois liked to mix among the common black folk and he gives us some insight into how poor blacks lived at the time. An uneasy peace had settled in the south as resentful whites adjusted to the new status of blacks as partially free and equal, courtesy of the Yankee government.
My favorite essay was Of the Coming of John in which a white John, son of a judge, and a black John, son of a servant, live parallel lives. They both leave town to get a degree. White John goes to Princeton and Black John goes to a lesser known school. The whites in the small southern town decry Black John getting an education, saying that it will ruin him. After all, he is such a nice, obedient boy and will make a good servant as long as he does not get any fool ideas in his head. As Black John loses his simplicity and becomes more disciplined in his studies, he becomes serious, dignified, and less content than when he was a simple, joyful youth. He returns home reluctantly after getting his degree, thinking that he has outgrown the small town he grew up in. He goes North briefly, but he does not feel at home there either. The blacks in the small town think he has become stuck up and whites think that he has become dangerously uppity. The story ends in tragedy, but I thought it was a good story about outgrowing a town and then not being able to fit back into that small box again and not being able to fit in elsewhere either. It's something I can relate to. It shows the attitudes of whites toward black education at the time. In a sense, Black John was ruined, but that, according to Du Bois, was because whites would not support black education, not because he had outgrown the town.
W.E.B. DuBoise, book review
If you are not well-read, or a Harvard graduate, then you might want to think twice before ordering this one. It's the typical work of W.E.B. BuBoise - using uncommon 'advanced terminology' (long fancy words) to present his point. You'll find yourself having to use a dictionary for every other word, and it'll take a month to finish this 150 page paperback, and you'll still find youself saying, "That's it? THAT'S the book that all the fuss has been stirred over?" If you want to read something of the old fashioned 'Reconstruction era' pertaining to black folks, then stick to 'Ways of The White Folks,' or something else by Langston Hughs.
Review of Bedford's DuBois
This volume includes the Souls of Black Folk, and also a few other essays by DuBois. The introduction to the subject matter is almost as inspiring as DuBois himself. One drawback- the text is accompanied by endnotes rather than footnotes, which is rather problematic because Dubois' frequent references to very specific classical literature call for frequent trips to the back of the book.
Understand "double consciousness"
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 - August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95. David Levering Lewis, a biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W.E.B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism--scholarship, propaganda, integration, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity. After graduating from Fisk University in 1888, Du Bois took a bachelor's degree cum laude from Harvard College in 1890 (Harvard having refused to recognize the equivalency of his Fisk degree), and in 1892 received a stipend to attend the University of Berlin. While a student in Berlin, he travelled extensively throughout Europe, and came of age intellectually while studying with some of the most prominent social scientists in the German capital, such as Gustav von Schmoller. In 1896, Du Bois became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University. After teaching at Wilberforce University in Ohio and the University of Pennsylvania, he established the department of sociology at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University).
"The Souls of Black Folk" is the most well-known work of African-American W.E.B. Du Bois, a writer, leader, and civil rights activist. The book, published in 1903, contains several essays on race, some of which had been previously published in Atlantic Monthly magazine. Du Bois drew from his own experiences to develop this groundbreaking work on being African-American in American society. Outside of its notable place in African-American history, The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of the first works to deal with sociology. In Living Black History, (p. 96) esteemed scholar and Du Bois biographer Manning Marable makes the following observation about the book: "Few books make history and fewer still become foundational texts for the movements and struggles of an entire people. The Souls of Black Folk occupies this rare position. It helped to create the intellectual argument for the black freedom struggle in the twentieth century. Souls justified the pursuit of higher education for Negroes and thus contributed to the rise of the black middle class. By describing a global color-line, Du Bois anticipated pan-Africanism and colonial revolutions in the Third World. Moreover, this stunning critique of how 'race' is lived through the normal aspects of daily life is central to what would become known as 'whiteness studies' a century later."
For Du Bois the problem of 20th century is problem of color line. Concept of double consciousness is looking thru eyes of others. Notion of authenticity what does it mean to be authentic? His idea is very Freudian. Du Bois says authenticity is a longing for Blacks, but impossible because blacks can't be authentic have to live another way. Cornell West says Du Bois is a pragmatist. He is connected to the Harlem Renaissance. Paul Gilroy says Du Bois is more connected with Pan Africanism experience of displaced Africans around the world. What does he mean "souls of Black folk"? It is a metaphor for spirituality. Book is meant to provide progress for black folks. Freedman's bureau had some success like schools. He had issue with B. T. Washington populist message of wanting blacks to concentrate on jobs not the vote, higher education, or civil rights. Du Bois resents Booker T. Washington as spokesperson for blacks. Critiques American materialism. Standard of human culture and lofty ideals of life, the talented tenth. Book is pioneering for 6 reasons: 1. Identification of hyphenated self. 2. Recognition of Black culture like music, the Blues vernacular culture. The soul of the nation itself, West says musically is key to text, it "sings" the "sorrow song" is motif of life. 3. Important to Harlem renaissance period. 4. Pioneering work of sociology and psychology. 5. Higher education is means to self realization. 6. Relations to economics drives development of black life.
Double consciousness. His double consciousness gives us a vivid picture of how tragic the racist discourse is, defined by skin color. Black or white thus it strengthens arguments that each race had unique properties thus polarizing us. His book gives us this understanding of our mind and self identity. If Blacks accept the racial divide they then deny equality. He does see a black identity and celebrates difference made real in Black experience. Celebrates difference made real in peoples experience and beyond our racial fictions. How does he do this, what is the key? It is music the "sorrows song." Those voicings, these songs speak to slow tragedy. He precedes each chapter with sorrow song. The doubleness of consciousness is extended throughout the work. They convey resistance and defiance. Last chapter how prejudice works on people. Whiteness is non race. The great chain of being, your place in society. Rise of Enlightenment human is now sovereign leads to systematic study of man.
Du Bois was investigated by the FBI, who claimed in May of 1942 that "his writing indicates him to be a socialist," and that he "has been called a Communist and at the same time criticized by the Communist Party." Du Bois visited Communist China during the Great Leap Forward. Also, in the 16 March 1953 issue of The National Guardian, Du Bois wrote "Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature." Du Bois was chairman of the Peace Information Center at the start of the Korean War. He was among the signers of the Stockholm Peace Pledge, which opposed the use of nuclear weapons. In 1950, he ran for the U.S. Senate on the American Labor Party ticket in New York and received 4% of the vote. He was indicted in the United States under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and acquitted for lack of evidence. W.E.B. Du Bois became disillusioned with both black capitalism and racism in the United States. In 1959, Du Bois received the Lenin Peace Prize. In 1961, at the age of 93, he joined the Communist Party USA.
Du Bois was invited to Ghana in 1961 by President Kwame Nkrumah to direct the Encyclopedia Africana, a government production, and a long-held dream of his. When, in 1963, he was refused a new U.S. passport, he and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, became citizens of Ghana, making them dual citizens of Ghana and the United States. Du Bois' health had declined in 1962, and on August 27, 1963, he died in Accra, Ghana at the age of ninety-five, one day before Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, or philosophy.
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