The Souls of Black Folk

Contemporary Review, Dec, 1999

The Souls of Black Folk. W.E.B. DuBois. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jnr and Terri Hume Oliver. W.W. Norton. [pounds]7.95 p.b. 374 pages. ISBN 0393-97393-X. This is another in Norton's famous 'critical editions' of famous texts. Du Bois' collection of 'Essays and Sketches' was first published in 1903.

Its aim was to 'sketch, in vague, uncertain outline, the spiritual world' of America's blacks. It carried a prophecy that has haunted America: 'The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line'. DuBois discussed the work of Booker T. Washington, the meaning of progress, education, politics, relations, religion and 'spirituals'. The book has long been seen as a watershed in the history of American race relations and this edition has a preface to put the text into its proper historical context, as well as a list of DuBois' other writings, early critical reaction to the book and a range of modem critics' reactions. There is also a useful chronology and a well constructed bibliography.