Product Description

'The problem of the twentieth-century is the problem of the color-line.' Originally published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a classic study of race, culture, and education at the turn of the twentieth century. With its singular combination of essays, memoir, and fiction, this book vaulted W. E. B. Du Bois to the forefront of American political commentary and civil rights activism. The Souls of Black Folk is an impassioned, at times searing account of the situation of African Americans in the United States. Du Bois makes a forceful case for the access of African Americans to higher education, memorably extols the achievements of black culture (above all the spirituals or 'sorrow songs'), and advances the provocative and influential argument that due to the inequalities and pressures of the 'race problem', African American identity is characterized by 'double consciousness'. This edition includes a valuable appendix of other writing by Du Bois, which sheds light on his attitudes and intentions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107476 in Books
• Published on: 1994-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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 criticises 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 WEB 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

About the Author
Brent Edwards writes widely on literature and jazz, and has translated work by Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard, armong others. He is the author of The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (Harvard UP, 2003), winner of the John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association. He co-edited, with Robert O'Meally and Farah Griffiths, the collection Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies (Columbia UP,
2004).

Customer Reviews

An absolutely timeless eye�opener
I studied US History at university. Like mmost US history courses, we studied the slave trade and its repurcussions on society and we were encouraged to read DuBois although I never got around to it. I'm glad I picked up this book, which is essentially a group of stories and observations on life 'behind the veil'. I was reading and reading and taking it all in, and then I came to a paragraph in the last chapter asking the question 'would America be as it is today if it wasn't for the negro slave?'. I read this paragraph ten times at least. I have no answer for the questions it poses, but it really sums the book up. This is essential reading. I would heartily recommend it to anybody.

Thought provoking
Ive read it and re-read it and there still new facets to this book which I discover. Its a great literary book which deserves to be studied in school and discussed by children of all races.The author covers many of the topics and issues of his time and makes his views plain. the third chapter in which he gives his opinion of Booker Washington needs to be read through with a calm, clear mind. Its one of the most important essays ever written by an African american. This £1.90 edition is the best value edition going so you really have no excuses.