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keith_gardner 's review for:
The Souls of Black Folks
by W.E.B. Du Bois
I read the Penguin Vitae edition, which includes later essays by Du Bois that address some of the meaningful concerns with his work.
Du Bois' work in "Souls" is certainly groundbreaking and provocative, powerful in the ways rarely heard outside black America's transcendent clergy. The writing is poetic and evocative, and the volume vacillates between high-handed, turn-of-the-century sociology and more intimate moments of personal story telling. Taken as an aesthetic it is wonderful to read and hold and carry.
The thought itself is holds steadfastly to baseline liberalism, with a heavy dose of early 20th century class determinism. As he would later determine, the normative focus should be on raising the living standards of all people of colour, but in "Souls" he routinely comes back to the notion of the Talented Tenth and the creation of something akin to a black vanguard.
His discussions of the Freedmen's Bureau, and its promise and failures is intriguing and a lesson for policymakers who want to do big things. Meanwhile, the heroic status of the historically black college (not so historic in his time, but I digress) is quite meaningful and inspirational if one has a calling to be an educator.
Du Bois' work in "Souls" is certainly groundbreaking and provocative, powerful in the ways rarely heard outside black America's transcendent clergy. The writing is poetic and evocative, and the volume vacillates between high-handed, turn-of-the-century sociology and more intimate moments of personal story telling. Taken as an aesthetic it is wonderful to read and hold and carry.
The thought itself is holds steadfastly to baseline liberalism, with a heavy dose of early 20th century class determinism. As he would later determine, the normative focus should be on raising the living standards of all people of colour, but in "Souls" he routinely comes back to the notion of the Talented Tenth and the creation of something akin to a black vanguard.
His discussions of the Freedmen's Bureau, and its promise and failures is intriguing and a lesson for policymakers who want to do big things. Meanwhile, the heroic status of the historically black college (not so historic in his time, but I digress) is quite meaningful and inspirational if one has a calling to be an educator.