The Souls of Black Folk
Ratings15
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings15
Average rating4.1
Du Bois' 1903 collection of essays is a thoughtful, articulate exploration of the moral and intellectual issues surrounding the perception of blacks within American society.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is a must-read, especially if you live in America.
I'm not gonna pretend to know what it's like being black in the USA. But after reading this book and “We Were 8 Years in Power: An American Tragedy” (2017) by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2019, and a few others, I'm starting to pick up some patterns. There seems to be two camps in the black community:
• Those who see the poverty and brutality and suffering faced by people in their communities as being directly caused by their material conditions and those in power. This is exemplified by Coates, MLK, Ibram X. Kendi, and Du Bois. And...
• Those who see the poverty and brutality and suffering faced by people in their communities as being the fault of those suffering in the communities. This is best exemplified by Booker T. Washington, Bill Cosby, Barrack Obama, Ben Shapiro, every conservative ever, and most white Democrats.
As an aside, it's always a lot of fun reading really old books and seeing the author dedicate an entire chapter to just completely trashing their intellectual colleagues in the most eloquent ways possible. Couldn't tweet your shade back then, had to send it through a publishing house. Du Bois had an entire chapter dedicated to verbally destroying Booker T. Washington and it's the best chapter of the book, IMO.
So anyway, I fall into the former of those two categories and this book provides fascinating insight into the failure of Reconstruction. We've never reconciled with this failure and we're still reeling from it to this day.
I found this book fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in a snapshot of history not discussed enough.
This falls into the category: “The Lie of American Exceptionalism”
Short Review: Wide ranging series of 15 essays that range from personal to historical to philosophical. This is both clearly rooted in its time (1903) and still prescient. I think this is the first time I have read a whole book by DuBois. I have read some of his individual essays (the talented 10th at least). DuBois has a lyrical writing style that I really love. I want to read more of his writing, but probably after I read a good biography. If anyone has a suggestion I am open to it.
My slightly longer review on my blog is at http://bookwi.se/souls-of-black-folks/
