The Souls of Black Folk

Introduction by Arnold Rampersad

Introduction by Arnold Rampersad
Introduction by Arnold Rampersad

W.E.B. Du Bois was the foremost black intellectual of his time. The Souls of Black Folk is Du Bois's collection of fourteen beautifully written essays, which record the cruelties of racism, celebrate the strength and pride of black America, and explore the "double-consciousness" of African-American life. By turns lyrical, historical, and autobiographical, Du Bois's masterwork has influenced such modern-day scholars and social thinkers as Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., among others. It is an invaluable text, not only in African-American studies, but in any field of American social and cultural thought.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 1868. He attended public schools there prior to attending Fisk University, where he received his BA degree in 1888. Thereafter he received a second BA degree, and an MA and PhD from Harvard. He studied at the University of Berlin as well. He taught at Wilberforce University and the University of Pennsylvania before going to Atlanta University in 1897, where he taught for many years. A sociologist, historian, poet, and writer of several novels, Du Bois was one of the main founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was a lifelong critic of American society and an advocate of black people against racial injustice. He spent his last years in Ghana, where he died in exile at the age of ninety-five. View titles by W. E. B. Du Bois
“One hundred years after publication, there is in the entire body of social criticism still no more than a handful of meditations on the promise and failings of democracy in America to rival William Edward Burghardt Du Bois’s extraordinary collection of fourteen essays.” —from the Introduction by David Levering Lewis

About

Introduction by Arnold Rampersad

W.E.B. Du Bois was the foremost black intellectual of his time. The Souls of Black Folk is Du Bois's collection of fourteen beautifully written essays, which record the cruelties of racism, celebrate the strength and pride of black America, and explore the "double-consciousness" of African-American life. By turns lyrical, historical, and autobiographical, Du Bois's masterwork has influenced such modern-day scholars and social thinkers as Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., among others. It is an invaluable text, not only in African-American studies, but in any field of American social and cultural thought.

Author

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 1868. He attended public schools there prior to attending Fisk University, where he received his BA degree in 1888. Thereafter he received a second BA degree, and an MA and PhD from Harvard. He studied at the University of Berlin as well. He taught at Wilberforce University and the University of Pennsylvania before going to Atlanta University in 1897, where he taught for many years. A sociologist, historian, poet, and writer of several novels, Du Bois was one of the main founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was a lifelong critic of American society and an advocate of black people against racial injustice. He spent his last years in Ghana, where he died in exile at the age of ninety-five. View titles by W. E. B. Du Bois

Praise

“One hundred years after publication, there is in the entire body of social criticism still no more than a handful of meditations on the promise and failings of democracy in America to rival William Edward Burghardt Du Bois’s extraordinary collection of fourteen essays.” —from the Introduction by David Levering Lewis

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