The Souls of Black Folk

note: I read a different edition, but the app isn't letting me pick which edition.

du Bois has been criticised for both elitism and sexism, and I can see why. But even for me, who does not forgive those flaws lightly, the work outshines it's failings.

this book is rightly one of the foundational texts of Africans studies, but it should be an equally foundational text in AMERICAN studies. it lays out, beautifully and convincingly, the reality of two Americas, existing side-by-side and the duality of experience of black Americans.

More than once this book moved me to tears, but more it opened my eyes to things I had heard of but never fully understood.

Sometimes a book just blows my mind. This is one of them!

To think that this book, with the most cogent explanation of the race situation in the US, was written over one hundred years ago is just astounding. That a black man was so well educated in the US at the start of the twentieth century was a surprise. That any person, surrounded by such prejudice, could produce such an honest book leaves me almost speechless.

Du Bois is honest about the failings of his fellows, both black and white. He manages to write without the venom that I know that would fill my prose, were I to live under such injustice.

And yet, and yet... I have still to pronounce its greatest achievement. When one reads a book and thinks, "I should have known that": it show more indicates that the facts are self evidently true.

How can this book be so little known? Were it a set book - not just in America, but in England and probably every other country too, then racism would become a thing of the past in no time. show less

This collection of fourteen essays is written in an ornate style that shouldn’t obscure their enduring relevance, one hundred twenty years after the book appeared. Not that everything has remained the same since then—even Du Bois developed and changed his thinking over time. Perhaps conditions are not precisely as rendered in the two essays based on his sociological fieldwork in Dougherty County, in southwest Georgia. Nevertheless, they brought to mind and helped me understand what my child’s eyes took in uncomprehendingly sixty-five, seventy years ago as we drove the pre-Interstate Georgia roads.
Perhaps the felt relevance indicates that material change can outpace change in attitude and perception.
One of my favorite essays dealt show more with the history of the Black church. Another, on the death at eighteen months of his firstborn, was a poignant, bitter expression of the divided soul of the Black man.
Reading this book, I was struck again by the thought that accompanied me throughout my visit to the Smithsonian African American History and Culture Museum. No matter which side of what Du Bois calls “the Veil” we find ourselves on, this is our story. This is a book about and for all of us. show less

The author's attempt, through various narratives, to assist white America in 1903 to perhaps come to a better understanding of the situation and condition of America's black population.

DuBois is a masterful author. In this book he does everything from defending the Freedmen's Bureau to describing the plight of black people in a particular county in Georgia. He speaks of his own experiences as a college student, as a teacher, and of the loss of his own child to illness. He preserves the tunes of many a song and ends his book with a chapter on such songs.

Above all things DuBois proves prophetic, declaring that the 20th century would be overshadowed by the "Negro problem" and perceiving that Reconstruction would be looked upon poorly for show more many generations and could only be seen in a more positive light once black America was re-enfranchised. He provides an important perspective, writing just as a new and quite powerful wave of resentment overcame the South in the form of the Jim Crow laws and even greater restrictions than before, standing a generation removed from slavery and yet with the stories of slaves still ringing in their ears, looking forward to struggle which would take the better part of the century...and after more than a century has still not come to a complete end.

Over 100 years later the book remains compelling and a valuable read for any who would still wish to explore the "souls of black folk." show less

One of the toughest, most interesting non-fiction reads I've experienced.

The Souls of Black Folk was required reading for me this year - although the class only dealt with five or so chapters, I was so intrigued by what I was reading that I had to finish the entire book.

Each essay provided plenty of food for thought - but most interesting to me was the essay on the education of former slaves - what was appropriate and what was not. This is a part of history that really hasn't been part of my education, and not only did I find it enlightening, historically speaking, I also found it to be relevant today - for all types.

With our focus on getting straight into college after high school (and my experience with some siblings that just show more doesn't work for), I think what Du Bois has to say is incredibly insightful. Not every person is cut out for a life of academia after high school, and specialized training is there for a reason. As I attend school, and each semester say goodbye to more and more friends who just, for whatever reason, are not coming back, I find myself thinking more about the ideas that Du Bois so eloquently writes down.

I recommend this reading. I think everyone should read it - and I challenge you to do so. show less

This book shows how far backward we have moved as a society in the past 120 years. In addition to stunningly beautiful prose, Du Bois analyzed the history of black (and white) people (in America overall, but particularly in the South), the problems of slavery and the then-current reconstruction and post-reconstruction south, and paths to equality for everyone. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone could write something so honest today without being attacked by at least half of society, and many of the issues identified are still problems today.

It was useful that Du Bois had the perspective of a highly educated northerner (first black man to earn a PhD from Harvard, back when a PhD from Harvard meant something...) visiting the South show more (Atlanta, specifically). When this book was written, the "great migration" to the North had still not happened, so black issues were largely separate North and South. The most interesting part for me was how a large group, mostly oppressed/uneducated/powerless at the time, had to come to terms with a small subset becoming highly educated -- and whether that subset would then work for their own interests or try to uplift everyone else. show less

Du Bois weaves words together to create a pictorial masterpiece of literature. The sentences are so gorgeous that you want to read them out loud just to experience the pleasure of the sound and the speaking of them. I was absolutely blind-sided by their beauty because, in our internet age, that talent is often overlooked in favor of sharp, short sentences.

His words are often prophetic ("I insist that the question of the future is how best to keep these millions from brooding over the wrongs of the past and the difficulties of the present, so that all their energies may be bent toward a cheerful striving and cooperation with their white neighbors toward a larger, juster, and fuller future"*), heartrending (his chapters on the death of show more his son and the racism he observed and lived with), and thought-provoking (his chapters on education... have we forgotten its purpose?).

I highly recommend this book. It also gives you a good starting point into historical issues that may or may not be overlooked in our simplified history classes.

Also, fun fact, he is featured several times in [b:Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster|33898873|Invisible The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster|Stephen L. Carter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532468031l/33898873._SX50_.jpg|54863805] which also is a book worth your time.

*Pg. 94 show less