Summary
One of the most influential books ever published in America, W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk is an eloquent collection of fourteen essays that describe the life, the ambitions, the struggles, and the passions of African Americans at the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth centur... Full description
Summary: |
One of the most influential books ever published in America, W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk is an eloquent collection of fourteen essays that describe the life, the ambitions, the struggles, and the passions of African Americans at the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The first African American to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard University, Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. In The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, Du Bois argued against the conciliatory position taken by Booker T. Washington, at the time the most influential black leader in America, and called for a more radical form of aggressive protest--a strategy that would anticipate and inspire much of the activism of the 1960s. Du Bois's essays were the first to articulate many of Black America's thoughts and feelings, including the dilemma posed by the black psyche's "double consciousness," which Du Bois described as "this twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings ... in one dark body." Every essay in The Souls of Black Folk is a jewel of intellectual prowess, eloquent language, and groundbreaking insight. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the struggle for Civil Rights in America. --Publisher. |
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Item Description: |
Originally published: Chicago : A.C. McClurg & Co., 1903. |
Physical Description: |
xxviii, 212 pages : music ; 21 cm |
Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-212). |
ISBN: |
159308014X 9781593080143 |
Author Notes: |
Du Bois returned to Atlanta University in 1932 and tried to implement a plan to make the Negro Land Grant Colleges centers of black power. Atlanta approved of his idea, but later retracted its support. When Du Bois tried to return to NAACP, it rejected him too. Active in several Pan-African Congresses, Du Bois came to know Fwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, and Jono Kenyatta the president of Kenya. In 1961, the same year Du Bois joined the Communist party, Nkrumah invited him to Ghana as a director of an Encyclopedia Africana project. He died there on August 27, 1963, after becoming a citizen of that country. (Bowker Author Biography) |