The Souls of Black Folk

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Summary: DuBois' enduring "Souls"
Review: First published in 1903, "The Souls of Black Folk," by W.E.B. DuBois, is a book that still shines with power and relevance. A collection of essays and narrative pieces on the African-American experience, "Souls" is a brilliant blend of history, political science, and memoir, all written in a compelling literary style.

DuBois is intensely concerned with the situation of African-Americans, but "Souls" also shows flashes of the global vision that would develop throughout his intellectual career. In this book he introduces such key concepts as "the Veil" and "double-consciousness"; although these terms are explored within the African-American context, I believe they are relevant with regard to other groups that are marginalized on the basis of difference.

DuBois incisively criticizes the racism that plagued America after the end of slavery. Particularly fascinating is his iconoclastic critique of controversial Black leader Booker T. Washington, whom DuBois saw as too willing to compromise with a white racist establishment. There is a strong concern with economic issues in "Souls"; DuBois condemns a heartless capitalism which turns human beings into mere commodities, and considers how the "slavery of debt" replaced literal slavery for many Blacks. One of the best sections of the book is his apparently autobiographical account of teaching in a rural Black school in Tennessee.

Dubois' literary style is worthy of note: elegant and learned, direct and passionate. He makes many classical and literary references. DuBois' ideas make him, in my opinion, a figure who links the radical United States essayists of the 19th century (David Walker, Henry David Thoreau, etc.) with those of the mid- and late 20th century (James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, etc.). "The Souls of Black Folk" is an essential classic, and a great read.

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Summary: I would like to critique the entire book
Review: Hi, I read this book, The Souls of blck folk twice already, but for somee reason I just can't seem to sum it up in the correct order it should be in. I really like this book and I also am going to write a paper on it but I feel that I justr need a little help getting every important part of information in it. I do not want to leave anything out, and I woul like it to be in the bestpossble form for my paper that is almost due. I would like to know about the Dawnof the Freedom in a breif summary. Also about the up coming of John in a breif summary, and most of all, the problem of the twentieth century. Every part of the bok is important to me, but it is important to know the major purpose of the authors writngs. I would also like to know the background of all the important parts of the book, and why the author wrote such views. How did he feel, why did he mention it and what does ithaveto do with the problem of the twentieth century. Also what about Du Bois, how did he feel when writing this book, what were his thoughts andneeds and wants out of life besides freedom in America. When he spoke about being a negro in America, and being ruled and controled by the white man, what specfic point was he trying to maketo his readers.

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Summary: Must read for anyone interested in American history and lit.
Review: I can remeber reading this book in my liberal high school for our American lit class and thinking that they just stuck it in for diversity's sake--that black history and American history are separate entities. But as I began to study more history in college I began to realize that American history could not exist without black history and experience--that Dubois' insights into double identity and how racism affects both the reciever and promulgator of racism in insidious ways are crucial to understanding of how America continues to wrestle with the implications of hundreds of years of slavery, Jim Crow and now, more subtle racism.

I haven't read the book in 8 years, but Dubois description of the moment when a black child realizes achieves enough self awarenesss to undersstand that he is "black" and what that means to one's sense of self (at least in the 1910's south) is absolutely heartbreaking.

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Summary: Definitely worth 5 of my hard-earned stars!
Review: I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this work to read and be part of a book discussion group in downtown D.C. I came away amazed by many aspects of this seminal work. First, it may not be seminal if it were written in 2003, but it was written in 1903! An in-depth critique of the structures that support racism written in words that have carried themselves over a century. Second, W.E.B DuBois is not only a sociologist in the inchoate years of sociology, he is a philosopher as well. Yet, there is a tender chapter on the loss of his first born child. DuBois did not reject the head to follow his heart, nor did he reject his heart to follow his head. He was balanced regarding what influenced him, following sometimes the heart and sometimes the head. To see him only as someone who opposed slavery and racism is one-dimensional. However, this cannot be dismissed, either. Still, he is a magnificent story-teller, as seen in the chapter, "Of the Coming of John". Hurt more than helped by official religion, he is nonetheless spiritual, as seen in his chapters of faith, and the sorrow songs. He is a prolific author, writing well over a dozen books. Because his voice is dangerous, the powers-that-be have kept his name away from our ears and eyes. That needs to change. It is time for an awakening! I don't give 5-stars easily. This book demanded it.

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Summary: THE BOOK WAS GREAT!
Review: I HAVE READ SOULS OF BLACK FOLKS TWICE. ONCE FOR BLACK POLI-SCI CLASS, AND AGAIN FOR A BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE CLASS. I ENJOYED READING SOULS OF BLACK FOLKS. IT UPLIFTED MY SPIRTS AND TOUCHED ON SO MANY TOPICS THAT WERE UPPERMOST IN MY THOUGHTS AT THE TIME. PLEASE READ! IT IS A CONSCIOUS AWAKENING BOOK FOR ANYONE.

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Summary: Every American must read this!
Review: I read this book in a course on American intellectual history, and I must say that it was everything I'd expected it to be-- and more. From the death of his son to African-American spirituality, DuBois shows Americans what it meant to be an African-American. Anyone who wants to learn about African-American history should begin with this book.

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Summary: Read in English1A course
Review: I would like some help on the interpretations of both the Veil and double consciousness discussed throughout the book. thanks

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Summary: Well-written, prescient, and anti-Semitic
Review: I'd give this book four stars if not for some very troubling anti-Jewish passages in the text. To be fair, they are scattered, and anti-Semitism isn't DuBois' main point in the work -- which, as others have said, is astonishingly accurate in its predictions of the problems facing citizens of the 20th Century.

All the same, it unsettled me to read DuBois make eloquent pleas for black equality while almost cavalierly dropping Jewish stereotypes into the narrative.

Good book, but be warned. (Did DuBois abandon these stances later in life?)

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Summary: The Black Emerson
Review: If you are unaquainted with this book or with this author, you should remedy the situation immediately. In terms of eloquence, clear and ringing prose, descriptive power and any other quality that seperates great writers from mediocre ones, Dubois stands in the first rank. If Afro-Americans had had access to this book on a mass scale, there would have been a third real revolution in this country (I include the Civil War, obviously). This is the voice of suffering, but also of great ideas and ironclad arguement. It is also an incitement and very much an indictment, against racial boundaries that have plagued this nation since its inception. Dubois was and is one of the most powerful voices this country has ever produced. My jaw dropped on numerous occasions when first reading this text. He conveyed better than any other author, and there have been many great ones (Baldwin, Morrison, Wright, etc.) what it means to be "seperate, but equal." He is never an apologist. He at all moments maintains the dignity of his race. I really prefer in all aspects his demaeanor to Marcus Garvey's, even though that author was a more prominent "player." For modern revisionists (like Jane Smiley)who think that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was "great literature," I would recommend that they read this text and then decide. One voice is authentic, the other sorely disingenuous, and even, historically, counter-productive.

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Summary: The initial stages of a pragmatic view
Review: Over the years, numerable attempts to categorize THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK have been undertaken by scholars. For many it is considered a classical work of literary genius; others classify it as a seminal effort of sociological research. More than a few view it as a visionary historical document while there are those who consider it merely a book time has superceded. I do not know where to situate it in the literary spectrum and frankly where it resides is not particularly important. I do know it endures as salient commentary on the conditions of race relations (at least the black/white dichotomy) from the time of emancipation to the postmodern Jim Crow policies of the new millennium.

At the time of its publication in 1903, the re-United States was only forty years removed from the disorganized and disjunctive manumission of nearly 10 million blacks. *Plessy v. Ferguson*, establishing the doctrine of "separate but equal," had been decreed only seven years prior. In practicality, mechanisms to assist in the absorption of blacks into larger society were non-existent and in most quarters, no longer under contemplation. The collection of essays in this book represent Dubois' thinking at the time in regard to the challenges confronting Black and White America, a litany of encumbrances that have undergone modification over the past century but failing to recede to reminiscence. Dubois was a unapologetic elitist, an intellectual on par with the best of white society who was convinced logic and reason would tap the social conscience of the white "Talented Tenth," compelling that class to adopt what he viewed as the most efficacious strategy to approach the country's "Negro problem." He saw a duality of accountability for both cause and resolution, however he also believed it was incumbent that the most talented from both races assume the reins of leadership to pull/propel to action the less astute masses. He was optimistic, but he was in error. Then, as arguably is the case now, the majority of white society, including the intellectually gifted, was unwilling to assume any culpability for the status of the disaffected black. Conventional wisdom of the era indicated the "Negro problem" could be circumvented simply by implementation of tragically short-sighted, monolithic programs. The idealistic, but fundamentally flawed, philosophy of Booker T. Washington, an example of one of the earliest emanations of the principle of black absolution of presumptive white guilt, was less disturbing to white sensibilities and demanded far fewer altruistic considerations. Conversely, aspects of Dubois' philosophy represent an incipient variation of "victimization" although at this juncture he was not (nor did he ever become) parenthetically opposed to all precepts of Washington's ideology. He objected to the implied affimation of, and compliance with, perpetual underclass treatment.

In ensuing years, Dubois' philosophy grew more Afrocentric, substantially closer to the legacy he passed on to the activists of the 1950s and 1960s. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK is one tile of the mozaic W.E.B. Dubois now embodies. I rate the book 4 stars because it must be viewed in the context of his total bibliography. On independent analysis alone, the true picture Dr. Dubois is obscured.