Rating: 
Summary: Important read
Review: A bit of a slow read and disappointingly focused almost exclusively on black men (ignoring women), but it is a worthwhile portrait of the position of American blacks in the late 19th century. The second to the last chapter, The Coming of John, is a moving story of how racism can throttle achievement.
Rating: 
Summary: As resonant and relevant now as it was when first published
Review: 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:
Summary: A fine if at times flowery exposition by the young Dubois
Review: Doubtless it was a frustrating experience back at the time this book was published to try to contemplate solutions to black oppression. Lynching (mostly, though far from completely confined to the South) was reaching its high point ever or since in taking the lives of black Americans. As Dubois notes a few times, the Western European nations (including the U.S. in the Philippines, Cuba, et.al.) were subjugating the colored races of the world. As to what to do with the black lower class black majority Dubois agrees a lot with his rival Booker T. Washington. However he points out the absurdity of Washington's agreement with white supremacy that little attention should be given to higher education for blacks. Since Washington argued that blacks needed to accumulate wealth as industrial laborers, artisans,, and so on, who was going to give them the vocational education that they needed? White people weren't going to teach them, so they need black teachers trained at all black colleges, Dubois points out. Moreover, Dubois argues in another chapter blacks need education as a forum with which to stimulate their creativity and to articulate their own rich experiences wrought from the fact of being black. If blacks are restricted in developing their intellects or any of the other opportunities to live a constructive life, it will deepen their own resentment against white society and make them turn to anti-social pursuits. The black masses will turn to demagogues. There needs to be a strong professional class ("the talented tenth") that will lead the black community. Dubois at one point seems to say that if the white capitalist class of the post civil war South would receive for themselves the fruits of higher education that was mostly neglected in the antebellum South, then they might not act so barbarously towards their black laborers. This seems pretty naive. Dubois at one point launches in to a violently flowery tribute to the place where he was teaching at the time, Atlanta University. It is interesting to observe the excessive slightly affected refinement Dubois exudes in this book. Obviously, as is on display in his ending paragraph in chapter six, Dubois took refuge from the barbarousness of American apartheid in the high planes of the European enlightenment. Another chapter includes an account of Dubois's two years (1886-87) teaching school in a rural village in Western Tennessee. He portrays the struggles of the peasant inhabitants against severe poverty. In a sort of postscript, he comes back ten years later to the village to see what has become of everyone. To take one example. He had been impressed with a young girl named Josie who had an insatiable appetite to learn. Well ten years later Josie was dead from exhaustion at the fruitless debt ridden toil for her family. Her brother had grown angry at his inability to advance in life and taken to petty theft. Other inhabitants had been able to buy more land, though most that were still there were farming away, trapped by the inescapable debt imposed by the white financial elites of the area. In another chapter he pays tribute to the black abolitionist preacher Alexander Crummel. He writes in a maudlin way about the latter's effort to be a true Christian in the midst of white supremacy in the North. In another, he produces a somewhat tedious sociological analysis of the Black Belt in Georgia. In another he produces a really excellent short story called "Of the Coming of John." The story is about how John, a black from a Georgia village goes away to college for about seven years. At a New York theater, the manager genially asks John to leave and fully refunds his ticket, on the ground of objection to having to sit near John, by a white man who turns out to be an old playmate from the Georgia village. John returns to his village after seven long years of educating himself and thinking about the world. He has grown very intellectual and cold and cynical. This does not please either the blacks or whites of the town, the whites because he has grown uppity as they feared when he left, the blacks because he is so emotionally remote from them. In another chapter Dubois laments the death of his baby son though speculates that maybe it is good the little fellow didn't grow up to feel the pain of American racism that he himself feels and wishes for escape from. There are two essays by Dubois attached to this edition of the book. One is "The Conservation of Races" a speech delivered by Dubois to the opening of the Negro Academy in 1897 and "The Development of a People" written in 1904. Dubois seems to exhibit in the first an excessive, though typically bourgeois concern for the allegedly poor morals and financial management of the black lower classes. I understand that he is here preaching self-help and betterment for his racial brethren. However I think he should have spent more time (here and in "Souls") elaborating on the economic oppression that made blacks, and has always made it frustrating for poor people to pursue their dreams. In the "Development of a People," he really cuts deep into white supremacy's claims to superior morality. He notes that the slavery t the Arabs introduced into Africa had the benefit for the slaves in that the latter could become members of the slave-owning household e.g. marrying into it. It was up to the Europeans to introduce slavery based on skin color with all its unspeakable brutalities. One further notes the importance of this book in that it was written at a time when Booker T. Washington was exercising dictatorial control over black intellectual life...
Rating:
Summary: A fine if at times flowery exposition by the young Dubois
Review: Doubtless it was a frustrating experience back at the time this book was published to try to contemplate solutions to black oppression. Lynching (mostly, though far from completely confined to the South) was reaching its high point ever or since in taking the lives of black Americans. As Dubois notes a few times, the Western European nations (including the U.S. in the Philippines, Cuba, et.al.) were subjugating the colored races of the world. As to what to do with the black lower class black majority Dubois agrees a lot with his rival Booker T. Washington. However he points out the absurdity of Washington's agreement with white supremacy that little attention should be given to higher education for blacks. Since Washington argued that blacks needed to accumulate wealth as industrial laborers, artisans,, and so on, who was going to give them the vocational education that they needed? White people weren't going to teach them, so they need black teachers trained at all black colleges, Dubois points out. Moreover, Dubois argues in another chapter blacks need education as a forum with which to stimulate their creativity and to articulate their own rich experiences wrought from the fact of being black. If blacks are restricted in developing their intellects or any of the other opportunities to live a constructive life, it will deepen their own resentment against white society and make them turn to anti-social pursuits. The black masses will turn to demagogues. There needs to be a strong professional class ("the talented tenth") that will lead the black community. Dubois at one point seems to say that if the white capitalist class of the post civil war South would receive for themselves the fruits of higher education that was mostly neglected in the antebellum South, then they might not act so barbarously towards their black laborers. This seems pretty naive. Dubois at one point launches in to a violently flowery tribute to the place where he was teaching at the time, Atlanta University. It is interesting to observe the excessive slightly affected refinement Dubois exudes in this book. Obviously, as is on display in his ending paragraph in chapter six, Dubois took refuge from the barbarousness of American apartheid in the high planes of the European enlightenment. Another chapter includes an account of Dubois's two years (1886-87) teaching school in a rural village in Western Tennessee. He portrays the struggles of the peasant inhabitants against severe poverty. In a sort of postscript, he comes back ten years later to the village to see what has become of everyone. To take one example. He had been impressed with a young girl named Josie who had an insatiable appetite to learn. Well ten years later Josie was dead from exhaustion at the fruitless debt ridden toil for her family. Her brother had grown angry at his inability to advance in life and taken to petty theft. Other inhabitants had been able to buy more land, though most that were still there were farming away, trapped by the inescapable debt imposed by the white financial elites of the area. In another chapter he pays tribute to the black abolitionist preacher Alexander Crummel. He writes in a maudlin way about the latter's effort to be a true Christian in the midst of white supremacy in the North. In another, he produces a somewhat tedious sociological analysis of the Black Belt in Georgia. In another he produces a really excellent short story called "Of the Coming of John." The story is about how John, a black from a Georgia village goes away to college for about seven years. At a New York theater, the manager genially asks John to leave and fully refunds his ticket, on the ground of objection to having to sit near John, by a white man who turns out to be an old playmate from the Georgia village. John returns to his village after seven long years of educating himself and thinking about the world. He has grown very intellectual and cold and cynical. This does not please either the blacks or whites of the town, the whites because he has grown uppity as they feared when he left, the blacks because he is so emotionally remote from them. In another chapter Dubois laments the death of his baby son though speculates that maybe it is good the little fellow didn't grow up to feel the pain of American racism that he himself feels and wishes for escape from. There are two essays by Dubois attached to this edition of the book. One is "The Conservation of Races" a speech delivered by Dubois to the opening of the Negro Academy in 1897 and "The Development of a People" written in 1904. Dubois seems to exhibit in the first an excessive, though typically bourgeois concern for the allegedly poor morals and financial management of the black lower classes. I understand that he is here preaching self-help and betterment for his racial brethren. However I think he should have spent more time (here and in "Souls") elaborating on the economic oppression that made blacks, and has always made it frustrating for poor people to pursue their dreams. In the "Development of a People," he really cuts deep into white supremacy's claims to superior morality. He notes that the slavery t the Arabs introduced into Africa had the benefit for the slaves in that the latter could become members of the slave-owning household e.g. marrying into it. It was up to the Europeans to introduce slavery based on skin color with all its unspeakable brutalities. One further notes the importance of this book in that it was written at a time when Booker T. Washington was exercising dictatorial control over black intellectual life...
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to understand
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.
Rating:
Summary: Souls of Black Folks
Review: The audio CD version of Dubois' "Souls of Black Folks" is horrible. The reader makes mistake after mistake. He mispronounces words, makes breaks where none were to be taken, and his reading in general is poor. He has made a vibrant and enjoyable read a boring and atrocious listening experience. I guess I'll have to find something else to listen to on those long drives. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT Purchase this rendering of "Souls".
Rating:
Summary: Living Beneath a Veil
Review: The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of fourteen essays by brilliant African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois written 100 years ago, is a stirring and insightful look at the lives of the former slaves following Emancipation. It thoughtfully addresses nearly all aspects of life, from religion to prosperity (or lack thereof) to race relations, and how they were affected by the abolition of slavery. Some essays take a more historical view while others are nearly in the form of short stories. What makes The Souls of Black Folk unique is Du Bois' insider's approach to the subject. He himself was African American (although neither of his parents were slaves), and that gives him quite a different view from white historians of the time. He is deeply sympathetic to the plight of the freed slaves and understands with infinitely greater clarity their daily struggle to overcome the subtle manipulations of those cunning and cruel enough to take advantage of their vulnerable, somewhat naive position. Du Bois also takes immense pride in his race and doesn't hesitate to share all of its accomplishments and contributions to American society with his audience. Given the prevailing attitude of either indifference or animosity towards African Americans at that time in history, The Souls of Black Folk appears to take some important steps toward earning respect for black America or at least making others aware of its positive aspects: "Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God himself stamped across her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty. And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song- the rhythmic cry of the slave- stands today not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas. It has been neglected, it has been, and is, half-despised, and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people." Du Bois' use of a metaphorical "Veil" that separates the blacks from the whites is a very unique image that appears throughout the book and serves to unify perspectives on how blacks are perceived by white society. "Within the Veil was he born, said I; and there within shall he live... a hope not hopeless, but unhopeful, and seeing... a land whose freedom is to us a mockery and whose liberty is a lie." For the most part, Du Bois achieves his purpose of depicting, in gory detail, the hardships faced by the newly freed African Americans. In "Of the Black Belt" and "Of the Sons of Master and Man" particularly, Du Bois discusses the economic injustices that blacks faced. "Of every five dollars spent for public education in the State of Georgia, the white schools get four dollars and the Negro one dollar." As a reader, it was disconcerting to hear of the ways in which whites (especially Southerners) found legal ways of denying African Americans their rights as citizens of the United States. Du Bois' writing is both elegant and persuasive. One can only marvel at the grace with which he assembles his thoughts: "I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls... So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America?" Also remarkable is the tone with which Du Bois approaches the sensitive subject matter. Racial prejudice is something that could very easily incite anger and intense emotions in the calmest of people, yet Du Bois is able to take a step away from his anger and tone down his emotional response. He is intent on making his points, but a feeling of calm pervades every page: he is never out of control. This serves to lend even more credibility to his writing. However, The Souls of Black Folk has one noticeable detractor. Parts of it seem redundant, so much so at times that many of the essays blend into one mega-essay. Essays with similar subjects, such as "Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece" and "Of the Black Belt," which both discuss (to a greater or lesser degree) Negro cotton farming in the South, particularly run together. The overlap of material is probably due to the fact that some of the essays came from individual publications in magazines over the course of years. The Souls of Black Folk was a surprisingly good read. It was not nearly as boring as I feared it might be. I greatly enjoyed the essays that were more like stories, most notably "Of the Meaning of Progress" (an autobiographical look at Du Bois' first teaching experience in Tennessee), "Of the Passing of the First-Born" (the story of the birth and death of Du Bois' first child), and "Of the Coming of John" (the tragic story of a young black man who leaves home to get an education and returns to find life very different). They had a much stronger emotional pull than the more historical essays, and I became very involved in the events they told of. I also found myself learning things from this book, things that I really hadn't thought much about before, like what life was actually like in the South once the slaves were freed. I didn't know anything about the Freedmen's Bureau's troubled history or the fact that it was destroyed long before it should have been. It was a much more eye-opening literary experience than I ever expected it to be. Despite its age, The Souls of Black Folk still rings true today, and Du Bois' foresight is startlingly accurate: "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line". Despite the radical social changes of the 1960's, racism is still ingrained here. Things have gotten better, but it makes one question whether racism is a defeatable problem. Will ever "the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is mockery and a snare"? Will Du Bois' "Veil" ever be lifted? I hope so.
Rating:
Summary: Wow...
Review: This book is a timeless classic. It cuts deep into the readers mind, heart, and soul. It is thought provoking and tackles the tough questions of race relations in America. I love the way DuBois challenges the reader, he presents some powerful facts and drops alot of wisdom in this book. I personally took it slow when I read it, in order for everything to sink in completely. You will easily find yourself re-reading it. The Souls of Black Folk should be read by everyone who appreciates some serious food for thought in my opinion and W.E.B. DuBois delivers big time. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
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