The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois Reader

About this book

The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois Reader encompasses the whole of Du Boiss long and multifaceted writing career from the 1890s through the early 1960s. The volume selects key essays and longer works that portray the range of Du Boiss thought on such subjects as African American culture the politics and sociology of American race relations art and music black leadership gender and womens rights Pan-Africanism and anti-colonialism and Communism in the U.S. and abroad. Chronologically the volume stretches from definitive early essays such as "The Conservation of Races" to later works such as "Africa and World Peace" and "Gandhi and the American Negro." Du Boiss most famous book The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and his landmark work on colonialism Darkwater (1920) which contains many of his best-known shorter essays such as "The African Roots of the War " "On Being Black " and "The Burden of Black Women " are both printed in their entirety. Key chapters drawn from full-length studies including The Philadelphia Negro The Gift of Black Folk Black Reconstruction Dusk of Dawn The World and Africa In Battle for Peace and Du Boiss posthumous autobiography are supplemented by dozens of shorter essays covering topics in literature education African politics urban studies and American foreign policy. Individual essays and selections from longer works also illustrate Du Boiss skillful biographical studies of historical figures such as Toussaint LOuverture Phillis Wheatley Abraham Lincoln and John Brown as well as contemporaries like Booker T. Washington Marcus Garvey Kwame Nkrumah Paul Robeson and Joseph Stalin. Supplemented by an extensive critical introduction and headnotes to major works and topics theOxford Reader offers the most extensive compilation of Du Boiss writings now available.