Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Souls of Black Folk: With the Talented Tenth and the Souls of White Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

5 reviews

toffishay's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

This is a seminal work in Black American studies and sociology that is required reading for anyone interested in learning a little more about the history of Black people and relations between Black and white people in America. As a Black woman who studied sociology, W.E.B. DuBois has always been a venerated ancestor and I have read many of these essays in my personal life and in my academic studies. They are limited by the time and his ideas are developed from a particular perspective, so while there are many notions with which I disagree, I can understand the value that they had at the time and the value that this scholarship has for us today. Some essays that are particular stand-outs for me: "Of Our Spiritual Strivings", "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others", "Of the Faith of the Fathers", "Of the Passing of the First-Born", "The Sorrow Songs", "The Talented Tenth", and "The Souls of White Folk"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Colonisation

Moderate: Hate crime, Murder, Grief, Violence, Death, and Child death

Minor: Genocide, Antisemitism, Rape, Sexual violence, Cultural appropriation, Xenophobia, and War

honeyvoiced's review against another edition

informative

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Rape

Moderate: Colonisation, Classism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Violence

strange's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

The fact that much of what is said here still holds so true today is heartbreaking 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Hate crime, Genocide, Racial slurs, Slavery, and Child death

Moderate: Rape, Murder, Hate crime, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Classism, and Colonisation

clayby's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

 

The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.

I'd been wanting to get into W.E.B. Du Bois' works for some time, and when I saw this beautiful "Penguin Vitae" edition of The Souls of Black Folk: With the Talented Tenth and the Souls of White Folk, I knew I just had to have it.

Onto the contents of the book, there's a very nice introduction written by Ibram X. Kendi (author of How to Be an Antiracist, among many other greats), followed by some suggestions for further reading. After this, we finally begin The Souls of Black Folk.

Throughout the book, Du Bois swings back and forth between an almost poetic prose and a more traditional textbook style. Some may find this to be disjointed and/or annoying, but I personally enjoyed it. Books from this era and before tend to lose me off and on, especially denser works, however, I found myself laser-focused on Du Bois' observations and findings.

Comparing all these pages, written over a century ago, to the world as it exists today, we as a society really haven't progressed much.

W.E.B. Du Bois was an incredibly brilliant man, and while he wasn't without his own blind-spots and shortcomings, I would say that The Souls of Black Folk: With the Talented Tenth and the Souls of White Folk is a timeless, invaluable work of sociology, as well as an essential piece of African-American writing. 

I hope more and more people read the works of Du Bois and other great Black minds. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Slavery

Moderate: Colonisation and Racial slurs

Minor: Violence, Antisemitism, and Classism

jose's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Violence