Customer Reviews

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (Dover Thrift Editions)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fondly called W.E.B., Dr William Edward Burghardt DuBois was a conscientious voice, whose mouthpiece was just a pen. Each of his writings buttressed this point.
A bundle of intellect, all his works have remained potent till this day. Having enumerated the problems and experiences of emancipated slaves in "The Souls of Black Folk", Dr DuBois used this book, "Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil", to highlight the intricacies of the then White-Black relationships. This book has a socio-economic focus, and dealt with such associational issues like exploitative labour, voting rights, women's rights, and family values. It suggested guidance and remedies wherever necessary. The ideas and insights of Dr DuBois were general in perspective: both Whites and Blacks were thought of.
This book is more than eighty years old; however, anybody who reads it, needs only to turn a few pages before discovering that we are still grappling with most of its lamentations.
Finally, I must say that I cherished reading this book. "Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil" is a compelling piece; especially for anyone who is familiar with either "The Souls of Black Folk" or "Dusk of Dawn".

If you don't know, Dr. Du Bois is the greatest social scientist of all time. In this book, Du Bois emerges as a fearless truthteller while remaining erudite in his observations. Du Bois is also simultaneously a poet, as several of his poems are embedded in this work. Much of his cogent analysis remains highly relevant and proves even to be prophetic.

This book addresses global issues, immigration policy, womens rights, civil rights, and the nature of European colonizaton of Africa. Du Bois connects the dots that tie the East St. Louis riots, the brutal treatment of african labor by european colonists, the low wages of domestic african american workers and women in america, and the shortage of european migration/workers because of the "great war". This is a first hand account of history by an African American that differs from past accounts of the above mentioned events in history texts, the movies, and the majority press.
Darkwater is an easy read that educates. This is history not written as history by the author but as a comment on the events of his time that have significance to what is occuring in the world today.
I found the book very enjoyable and enlightening. I witheld one star from the rating because the poetry, although good, seemed be tossed in as a filler.