The Souls of Black Folk: With an Introductory Chapter by Booker T. Washington - Softcover

Washington, Booker T.; Bois, W. E. B. Du

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1446501183 ISBN 13: 9781446501184

Publisher: Read & Co. Books, 2020

Synopsis

This landmark in the literature of black protest eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind Sacred FireHerein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here in the dawning of the Twentieth Century Born in Massachusetts in 1868 William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was the foremost black intellectual of his time 8212and mind you his time stretched all the way from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement of the 1960s A man of staggering intellect and drive he was the first black to hold a doctorate from Harvard University Du Bois wrote three historical works two novels two autobiographies and sixteen pioneering books on sociology history politics and race relations He was a founder of the NAACP pioneering Pan Africanist spirited advocate for world peace and tireless fighter for civil rights during the darkest days of Jim Crow Du Bois was also a prophet At the turn of the century he wrote in the forethought of this seminal collection of essays that the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line That statement has resonated throughout this turbulent century and remains just as fresh today as in 1903 The Souls of Black Folk a collection of fourteen powerfully written essays that are by turn testimony and autobiography stands as a monumental achievement and quite possibly his most influential work The book is both a vivid portrait of the conditions facing freshly emancipated black folk at the turn of the century and a still relevant discussion of the dilemma of race in the United States It was here that Du Bois introduced his influential concept of double consciousness the struggle of black people trying to define themselves as both black and American What makes these unflinching luminous and troublesome essays so powerful is that each builds upon the other to try to answer qu

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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.

From the Publisher:

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." Thus speaks W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls Of Black Folk, one of the most prophetic and influental works in American literature. In this eloquent collection of essays, first published in 1903, Du Bois dares as no one has before to describe the magnitude of American racism and demand an end to it. He draws on his own life for illustration, from his early experiences teaching in the hills of Tennessee to the death of his infant son and his historic break with the conciliatory position of Booker T. Washington.

Far ahead of its time, The Souls Of Black Folk both anticipated and inspired much of the black conciousness and activism of the 1960's and is a classic in the literature of civil rights. The elegance of DuBois's prose and the passion of his message are as crucial today as they were upon the book's first publication.

About this edition

• Publisher: Read & Co. Books
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1446501183
• ISBN 13: 9781446501184
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 231