Du Bois turned 'Crisis' into the foremost black literary journal.

Du Bois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and edited the NAACP's official journal, 'Crisis,' from 1910 to 1934. The Souls of Black Folk (1903) made his name, in which he urged black Americans to stand up for their educational and economic rights. He taught economics and history at Atlanta University from 1897-1910. Du Bois studied at the University of Berlin, then earned his doctorate in history from Harvard in 1894. He attended Fisk College in Nashville, then earned his BA in 1890 and his MS in 1891 from Harvard. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research.In 1868, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced 'doo-boyz') was born in Massachusetts. The capstone of The Souls of Black Folk is Du Bois’s 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.”Įnriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author’s personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship.

With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered Du Bois’s impassioned yet formal prose, the largely autobiographical chapters of The Souls of Black Folks take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neo-slavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual “sorrow songs” that birthed gospel music and the blues. Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary-each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work.

The souls of black folk book