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Title: The Souls of Black Folk (Bedford Series in History and Culture) by W. E. B. Dubois, David W. Blight, Robert Gooding-Williams, W. E. B. Du Bois ISBN: 0-312-14996-4 Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.39 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Du Bois, Race and "The Color Line"
Comment: The Souls of Black Folks, as other reviewers have pointed out, is a masterpiece of African-American thought. But it is even more than that when we consider the context and time in which the book was written. Most of what DuBois discusses is still relevant today, and this is a tribute to the man, not only as a scholar, but as someone who was continually adapting his views in the best image and interests of black people.
Some reviewers refer to DuBois as "the Black Emerson" and, as a university instructor, I heard similar references made: 'the Black Dewey" or "the Black Park," referring to the Chicago School scholars. Du Bois was brilliant; indeed, these white men should be being called "the white Du Bois"! Du Bois literally created the scientific method of observation and qualitative research. With the junk being put out today in the name of "dissertations," simply re-read Du Bois' work on the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and his work on the Philadelphia Negro and it is clear that he needs not be compared to any white man of his time or any other: he was a renaissance man who cared about his people and, unlike too many of the scholars of day, he didn't just talk the talk or write the trite; he walked the walk and organized the unorganizable.
White racism suffered because Du Bois raised the consciousness of the black masses. But he did more than that; by renouncing his American citizenship and moving to Ghana, he proved that Pan Africanism is not just something to preach or write about (ala Molefi Asante, Tony Martin, Jeffries and other Africanists); it is a way of life, both a means and an end. Du Bois organized the first ever Pan African Congress and, in doing so, set the stage for Afrocentricity, Black Studies and the Bandung Conference which would be held in 1954 in Bandung, Indonesia. Du Bois not only affected people in this country, he was a true internationalist.
Souls of Black Folk is an important narrative that predates critical race theory. It is an important reading, which predates formal Black Studies. The book calls for elevation of black people by empowering black communities -- today's leadership is so starved for acceptance that I believe that Karenga was correct when he says that these kind of people "often doubt their own humanity."
The book should be read by all.
Rating: 5
Summary: As resonant and relevant now as it was when first published
Comment: Along with Malcolm X's biography, this book should be a mandatory text in American high schools. If you got this far, please, engage yourself and read the sample pages that amazon has allowed to be shown here.
This work is not just an eloquent attempt of one man to make sense of himself and his history, it is also by far the most sensitive, interesting (and accessible) treatment of Hegel the world has yet to see (including Marx- even though Du Bois spent the later years of his life smitten with socialism and the USSR- a viewpoint that eventually led him to abandon the NAACP's ((which he helped found in 1910)) agenda of integration).
One could spend much time tracing Du Bois' intellectual movements and his confrontations (as with Booker T. Washington). I won't attempt that here. Instead I'll attempt a cursory revealing of his Hegelian sensibilities. I don't use the word debt, because Du Bois doesn't borrow from Hegel- he resurrects him.
Du Bois's understanding of himself as a 'problem,' is as illuminating now as it was in 1903. I think at least a cursory engagement with Hegel is needed to truly understand this book and Du Bois' thought in its entirety. For that reason I highly suggest you purchase the critical Norton version of this book (ISBN: 039397393X). It adds a great deal. The preface alone is worth the ten-note...
The master/slave dialectic, as well the unfolding and development of a consciousness of freedom: Du Bois breathes life into this system of 'necessary' rational progression. Hegel himself traced the development of 'World Spirit,' through six historical peoples: Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, Romans and Germans. This forms the genesis of Du Bois' conception of black Americans as historically a, "...sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,- a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world... One ever feels his 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."
And that's just page 3. If Hegel himself had been this eloquent... Ah well...
Du Bois once wrote of his heritage that it included "a flood of Negro blood, a strain of French, a bit of Dutch, but, Thank God! No 'Anglo-Saxon'..." There is much to be admired in that statement's forwardness, and there is much to be understood and reconciled in its anger. As a white American, I have a cultural debt to black Americans, one that I will never be able to pay back. But the impossibility of a task does not preclude one from not attempting it.
Today America is as divided by race as it ever was. Honest dialogue is the only solution. This book- I can think of few places better suited to initiate that dialogue.
Rating: 2
Summary: Hard to understand
Comment: This book is very complex and difficult to understand. I had to read it for my ap us history class and I barely could follow it. I reccomend Up from Slavery instead, it is more entertaining and easier to understnad.
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Title: Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington ISBN: 0486287386 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 04 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson ISBN: 086543171X Publisher: Africa World Press Pub. Date: January, 1990 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Darkwater : Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. DuBois ISBN: 0486408906 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 04 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth ISBN: 048629899X Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 29 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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Title: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson ISBN: 048628512X Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 10 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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