The Souls of Black folk / Bantam classic ed.

　　William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) is the greatest of African 　　American intellectuals--a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist 　　whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from 　　Reconstruction to the civil rights movement. Born in Massachusetts and 　　educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, Du Bois penned 　　his epochal masterpiece, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903. It remains 　　his most studied and popular work; its insights into Negro life at the 　　turn of the 20th century still ring true. 　　With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered 　　his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical 　　chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro- 　　American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the 　　neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, 　　to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that 　　birthed gospel and the blues. The most memorable passages are contained 　　in "On Booker T. Washington and Others," where Du Bois criticizes his 　　famous contemporary's rejection of higher education and accommodationist 　　stance toward white racism: "Mr. Washington's programme practically 　　accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races," he writes, further 　　complaining that Washington's thinking "withdraws many of the high 　　demands of Negroes as men and American citizens." The capstone of The 　　Souls of Black Folk, though, is Du Bois' haunting, eloquent description 　　of the concept of the black psyche's "double consciousness," which he 　　described as "a peculiar sensation.... One ever feels this 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." Thanks to W.E.B. Du Bois' commitment and 　　foresight--and the intellectual excellence expressed in this timeless 　　literary gem--black Americans can today look in the mirror and rejoice 　　in their beautiful black, brown, and beige reflections. --Eugene Holley 　　Jr. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.