"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 p...
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Mar 08, 2011
Eric
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Man, this guy can preach. I opened The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and found myself ten years old watching Ken Burns’s The Civil War with my dad, dumbstruck by Morgan Freeman’s readings of mighty polemical passages from Frederick Douglass.
The whole land seems forlorn and forsaken. Here are the remnants of the vast plantations of the Sheldons, the Pellots, and the Rensons; but the souls of them are passed. The houses lie in half ruin, or have wholly disappeared; the fences have flown, More...
The whole land seems forlorn and forsaken. Here are the remnants of the vast plantations of the Sheldons, the Pellots, and the Rensons; but the souls of them are passed. The houses lie in half ruin, or have wholly disappeared; the fences have flown, More...
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Mar 01, 2009
Paula
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I appreciate DuBois’s classic study of race as an historical document, and at times even as a piece of literature. I particularly value his depiction of the political, social and material conditions in the South immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War. Nevertheless, I question some of his proposals and conclusions. Although his views may have been radical in 1903, many of them now sound paternalistic and outdated. Perhaps that, in and of itself, is a s
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Aug 05, 2007
Andrew
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So far, so good.
This collection of short essays was written in 1903 and basically changed the way people thought and talked about race in America. DuBois broke down the notion of a scientific explanation for racism and racial bigotry. He essentially went to the University of Atlanta to do just the opposite, to accomplish by scientific means some understanding of race relations and what was called at the time "the Negro problem." After only a few years, he realized that you More...
This collection of short essays was written in 1903 and basically changed the way people thought and talked about race in America. DuBois broke down the notion of a scientific explanation for racism and racial bigotry. He essentially went to the University of Atlanta to do just the opposite, to accomplish by scientific means some understanding of race relations and what was called at the time "the Negro problem." After only a few years, he realized that you More...
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Mar 13, 2007
david
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This is one of the books that every human being should read in their lifetime. No other book is more profound or searing as DuBois' evaluation of the problem between the color line. It is both challenging and heart-breaking. Though we have made progress since the dawn of the twentieth century, we still have a long way to go.
I would recommend this book not only to those interested in issues of race, but also anyone interested in American culture and society as a whole. It is a telling More...
I would recommend this book not only to those interested in issues of race, but also anyone interested in American culture and society as a whole. It is a telling More...
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Dec 28, 2008
Al
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Most of those interested in the struggle for black rights in this country have at least a passing awareness of William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois. Unfortunately, for many, their knowledge is limited -- as mine was - - to the adverse publicity he attracted late in life (post WW II) by his close association with Communists, both individuals and countries. The fact is that, for most of his life, Du Bois was one of the most thoughtful, articulate and prolific champions of equal ri
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Feb 16, 2011
Kyle
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This was a good book to read along with Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery. I think both authors and their books are important to understanding the struggle of the black people after the Civil War. I have a new appreciation for Washington's life and more importantly his attitude after reading Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk.
Du Bois was an eloquent writer able to paint a clear picture of the times for the readers, yet I found in his writing an underlying tone of anger, resentment, More...
Du Bois was an eloquent writer able to paint a clear picture of the times for the readers, yet I found in his writing an underlying tone of anger, resentment, More...
Feb 09, 2011
Ob-jonny
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This is basically a history of American black people from the Civil War to 1900. W.E.B. Du Bois is the first black person to obtain a PhD from Harvard University, and it seems like he was the top black intellectual of that time period. The book contains a description of the federal Reconstruction programs and the Freed-Mens Bureau which did much to encourage the building of schools but eventually the funding was taken away. The book describes the politics of the civil rights movement at the t
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Mar 13, 2010
Kevin
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An amazing read. A view of how the rapture of freedom went sour in a mere thirty-odd years, written by a man who was there to see it.
A challenging read if you aren't taking a course on African-American history. I say challenging because a hundred years later, we can't easily see the subtext that a contemporary reader would have had. It can certainly be jarring to a 21st century progressive to read the passages which strike an understanding and forbearant stance toward the oppressors More...
A challenging read if you aren't taking a course on African-American history. I say challenging because a hundred years later, we can't easily see the subtext that a contemporary reader would have had. It can certainly be jarring to a 21st century progressive to read the passages which strike an understanding and forbearant stance toward the oppressors More...
Aug 07, 2009
Janelle
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I read an excerpt from my Norton Anthology. (III. Of Mr. Booker T Washington and Others).
One of his central criticisms of Booker T. is his over-emphasis of the individual responsibility of the "Negroes" to lift themselves out of "degradation" at the expense of ignoring the necessity of societal and systemic change. DuBois takes a more integrated view of responsibility--both individual exertion to raise themselves from poverty and ignorance, and working toward cha
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Sep 18, 2009
Patrick
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This book shows Dubois as a smart man. Although this book is informative to what life was like for Black people post-Emancipation, his writing style is really disjointed. He swings from describing the black soul in metaphors to a more textbook sociological way of writing. It makes sense that the book is actually more of independent essays rather than one coherent work of nonfiction.
Having said that, I do enjoy his metaphor of the veil that separates Black men from society and the c More...
Having said that, I do enjoy his metaphor of the veil that separates Black men from society and the c More...
Dec 16, 2009
Mattgro
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From the very first essay, DuBois will astound the reader with a palpable passion for his people. With a probing technique that seeks Messianic responses to difficult questions, DuBois concurrently shows the baseness and the pinnacle of the human condition. The in-between transformative stage becomes his focus, as he seeks to explain how freed slaves became a people struggling to survive in a world that wanted no part of their heritage, intellect, or identity.
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May 28, 2009
Desera
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I read this book about 5years ago, and I believe that this book hits the nail on the head in regards to the condition of Black Folks post-Slavery/Colonial era. The concept of the veil and double consciousness should be studied. I was inspired to study Sociology by this great man although after in depth research I am very disappointed in DuBois's stance on many issues. I think this book can help those African's on U.S. soil understand those Blacks who have taken fight out of the black community,
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Feb 27, 2008
Becky
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This book was so much better and more enjoyable and thought-provoking than I expected. I can't wait to teach it in a composition class. The many different writing styles that combine to make up Du Bois's argument--including personal narrative, organized essays with explicit theses and even a bit of fistion--would be an excellent example for freshmen writers. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
Dec 19, 2010
Matt
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I read this in college and it really fascinated me. I don't remember it extremely well though, as I read it very quickly long ago. But his explanation of how music showed that African-Americans were intellects on par with the best that Euro-Americans had to offer truly struck a chord with me. As a kid I had always wondered why African-Americans seemed to be so "naturally talented" at music. After reading this book I realized that I was confused: it's not that African-Americans are
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Feb 15, 2011
Marialyce
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What to say about a book that tries to describe the way a black person thinks, acts, and is? While the book was written with a lot of energetic meanderings, the tone of the essays left me feeling bereft of feelings. There was so much rhetoric that at times I thought I was reading a dissertation on the problems the slaves faced after the Civil War. The matter of fact style bothered me. I felt that Du Bois was not writing for the masses, but rattling on about how awful things were and providing an
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Jun 27, 2010
John
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Written as an attempt to provide black youth with a perspective that is different than that of Mr. Booker T Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois works to analyze different racial issues and ideas in a way that is thorough and informative. The book opens with my favorite chapter, Of Our Spiritual Strivings, and asks a question that rings chillingly throughout the pages. I'm very open to reading about racial identities, but I think that Du Bois specifically made this to encourage people of all walks of li
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Apr 16, 2010
Sharone
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This is an essential piece of African American literature - for its presentation of the conditions and movements of the time, its sociological passages, and its rhetorical power.
April 16, 2010 update: This time through I listened to it on audiobook, and I have to say, it was an incredible experience. I highly recommend the (free!) audiobook from librivox.org, read by someone only identified as toriasuncle. The librivox audiobooks can be hit or miss since they're read by volunteers, but More...
April 16, 2010 update: This time through I listened to it on audiobook, and I have to say, it was an incredible experience. I highly recommend the (free!) audiobook from librivox.org, read by someone only identified as toriasuncle. The librivox audiobooks can be hit or miss since they're read by volunteers, but More...
May 28, 2009
Matt
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What have I learned from this book? I have been educated as to this frighteningly factual statement: "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." No, "The Souls of Black Folk" is not another sympathy lecture to be categorized into the genre of "white guilt" literature. Instead, W.E.B. DuBois has presented an existent problem, and in itself, an existent reality. Originally published at the century's dawn, this captivating nonfictional eva
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Oct 14, 2009
Stacey
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Not only do I find Du Bois a good commentator on society, but his writing alone reduces me to a pile of mush. And it's frankly creepy how much his depictions of America after the civil war struck a chord with me--a lot of what he observes still applies to American society today.
The following is a passage that turned into a paper for one of my classes: "I held him in my arms, after we had sped far away from our Southern home,--held him, and glanced at the hot red soil of Georgia and More...
The following is a passage that turned into a paper for one of my classes: "I held him in my arms, after we had sped far away from our Southern home,--held him, and glanced at the hot red soil of Georgia and More...
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Mar 08, 2010
Sadie
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For the past three years I've taken classes with Dr. Emilie Townes and in each of the classes she mentions concepts introduced by W.E.B. DuBois in this classic book. Since I've been learning and studying his work for for the past three years I finally had a chance to read the original work and it did not disappoint. DuBpis' understanding and insight of the racial issues of his time were insightful, and the development of "the veil" and "double consciousness" are still very m
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Feb 03, 2009
Luis
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DuBois takes a structural approach on how to solve the social problem of discrimination in the US. He is forceful in demanding more from the country as a whole. When this book was written, I would have agreed with Dubois 100 percent, his approach was the one to apply. America owed a lot to African Americans and only by mobilizing the state as a whole could economic advancement and self respect be possible. However, in 2009, I think Booker T Washington is more relevant. Much of what Dubois calle
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Dec 16, 2009
Steve
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Dubois is one of the preeminent African-American intellectuals of the 20th century--read the first few chapters to discover his creative concept of "double consciousness" for African Americans and the root of his quarrel with the assimilationism of good ol' Booker T.
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Oct 22, 2010
Melody
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It is impossible to rate The Souls of Black Folk too highly. It is a worthwhile read solely for the impact that it has had upon American society, both in its time and in the decades since its 1903 publication. The Souls of Black Folk was a major contribution to the African-American literary tradition, and it is also a cornerstone of the literature on sociology. Beyond its historical and educational value, though, I highly recommend this book to everyone for the piercing glimpses Du Bois offers i
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Feb 05, 2010
Natalie
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In The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois, a national leader in the reconstruction and civil rights movement, explores the unique hardships and passions of freemen. He captured the life and thought of African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were freed from slavery, but not give all the rights of a free white man. These “free men of color” were trapped in a no man's land, so to speak, of citizenship. Du Bois’ passion concerning the dilemmas of his race was e
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Dec 04, 2010
Michael G.
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Having just read Fredrick Douglass, perhaps I was expecting too much. I didn't get it. I did get some history of the Freedmen's Bureau established after the Civil War which had some interesting points but was dry and fact based. I was re-enforced in my belief that only through education can a person, race, or culture truly seek to improve its lot in life. The other thing I learned was that W.E.B. DuBois was well educated and he took this opportunity to prove it. There were also some more ev
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Jul 17, 2011
Lashana
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Education among all kinds of men always has had and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent.
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach hi More...
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach hi More...
Feb 08, 2011
Corey
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Chapter II: Of The Dawn of Freedom was eye opening. What a mess the U.S. was (maybe I should use the present tense?) in (and rightly so I suppose). The Bureau of Freedmen was doomed to fail. Everyone lost. "Reconstruction" was an idea without the means or the intelligence or the ideals enough for it ever to succeed. (metaphorical for public education?) This chapter also caused me to give an extra star to Bahr's "The Year of Jubilo" due to the fact that I felt like I unders
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Oct 29, 2011
Jaleh
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I had to read this book for an Introduction to English class, and I'm glad the professor put this book on the syllabus. This book is a great read, and Du Bois is a very compelling writer. We skipped two chapters in the book, but I went back and read them because I really wanted to get all of what Du Bois was saying. My favorite section was "Of the Coming of John." I addition to the work itself, the supplementary reading is also very interesting. It is good to read some of Washington's
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Mar 04, 2010
Pat
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I missed out on this one in college (pre-black studies era) and finally got around to reading it 35 years too late. The Souls of Black Folks 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.
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Jul 11, 2011
Bcoghill
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With the Civil War at the center of the US attention these years, 150 yrs after the fact, we should remember that it did not end with Grant & Lee signing some documents. The back people had some level of freedom but were still horrifically oppressed for a hundred years and more after the guns ceased.
The US was one of the last major countries to give up enslaving humans and that is our shame - as much as Germany has the shame of killing Jews and Japan the atrocities in China and Russia More...
The US was one of the last major countries to give up enslaving humans and that is our shame - as much as Germany has the shame of killing Jews and Japan the atrocities in China and Russia More...
