The Negro [Paperback]

W. E. B. Du Bois (Author), Robert Gregg (Afterword), W. E. B. DuBois (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2001

Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents. So begins The Negro, the first comprehensive history of African and African-derived people, from their early cultures through the period of the slave trade and into the twentieth century.

Originally published in 1915, the book was acclaimed in its time, widely read, and deeply influential in both the white and black communities, yet this beautifully written history is virtually unknown today. As a wellspring of critical studies of Africa and African Americans, it directly and indirectly influenced and inspired the works of scholars such as C. L. R. James, Eric Williams, Herbert Aptheker, Eric Foner, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. One of the most important books on Africa ever written, it remains fresh, dynamic, and insightful to this day.

The Negro is compelling on many levels. By comparing W. E. B. Du Bois's analysis with subsequent scholarship, Robert Gregg demonstrates in his afterword that The Negro was well ahead of its time: Du Bois's view of slavery prefigures both paternalistic perspectives and the materialist view that the system was part of the capitalist mode of production. On black contributions to the Civil War and to the emancipation of slaves, historians have yet to acknowledge all that Du Bois delineated. In his discussion of Reconstruction, Du Bois preempts much later historiography. His identification of segregation as an issue of class rather than race is almost forty years ahead of C. Vann Woodward's similar thesis. As to the matter of race, Du Bois is clear that the concept is a social construct having no foundation in biology.

Intellectually and historically prescient, Du Bois assumed globalization as a matter of course, so that his definition of the color line in The Negro links all colonized peoples, not just people of African descent. With the resolution of the Cold War and the ascendancy of the global market, Du Bois's sweeping vision of Africans and the diaspora seems more relevant now than at any time in the past hundred years.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Surprisingly, this 1915 title by one of our nation's most important African American writers has floundered in obscurity for decades. Du Bois here offers one of the earliest histories of African peoples and their cultures, from the devastation caused by European colonization to the lives of blacks in the early 20th century. This edition contains a new afterword by historian Robert Gregg. Essential for all libraries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Important by any standard."—Kirkus

"The book ought to be generally read, for it contains more than mere information. It gathers and sets forth authentic data which form the kind of historic background essential to race consciousness."—James Weldon Johnson

"The whole is written with an intellectual force, a breadth of learning, and a judicial poise that compel respect."—New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812217756
• ISBN-13: 978-0812217759
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Unknown Dubois, August 23, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Carey (willingboro, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Negro (Paperback)

W.E.B Dubois is most famous for being one of the founders of the N.A.A.C.P and for his critique of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise speech in his now famous The Souls of Black Folk which is required reading at most Black Studies Departments at universities throughout the United States in fact a typical United States History program may have you read it as well;however, DuBois book the Negro for which this review is about seems to be less popular and I find that many people have not read it and the historians who mention it rarely talk about it in detail, essentially the book gives a history of African people in Africa,America,and the Caribbean and talks about their accomplishments and struggles from ancient(5000B.C) to modern times(1915). After reading this book I now know why many programs rarely use this book I can't help but believe it is because the book is very Afrocentric in its structure.....I was shocked to find out that when it came to the history of ancient Africa Dubois has more in common with the afrocentrist Molefi Asante than many may realize and less in common with the more popular scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.(regardless of whether he is a part of the W.E.B Dubois Department at Harvard) I saw Henry Louis Gates PBS documentary Wonders of the African World maybe about five years ago and I remember how skeptical he was about connecting Ancient Egypt to the rest of sub-saharan Africa......DuBois is not shy at all when he states that Egypt is indeed a part of Africa and that the people who founded Egypt were Negro(this was the word used at the time the book was written)Dubois was more radical than people realize he was one of the founders of Pan-African Congress I believe there were five in all, he would eventually leave the N.A.A.C.P abandon the idea of integration, become a socialist(The F.B.I had a file on him), move back to Africa and die in Ghana.....in fact Dubois would have more in common with his enemy Marcus Garvey(Dubois in his early career would criticize Garvey for his back to Africa movement)than he would realize. Its a great read for anyone interested in this African-American intellectual giant it may change your perspective on the man you think you know, but it should make you find him even more interesting. I will warn you that the book is dated it was written in 1915 so some of his theories are proven wrong, one example would be that Dubois at the time thought that man originated in the Middle East, thanks to the archaeological and DNA record we now know that man originated in Africa, but enjoy this book and may it increase our understanding of this great man

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Navigation, January 20, 2011

By 

James O. Smith (Minneapolis, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Negro (Kindle Edition)

This is what it says it is: a public domain text with hypertext navigation that allows the user to easily move from the contents page to the individual chapters and sections. Most public domain texts are just Project Gutenberg texts rendered into the Kindle format. This text was carefully constructed to make navigation easy.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, even if you have to read it again and again, August 14, 2006

By 

InTheKnow "Knowledge is Power" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Negro (Paperback)

This book took me on a deep journey. Granted it may take most more than giving it a once over, but if you spend the time and effort to really get to know the book, and research exactly what the author is saying it is well worth the time that you took to understand it. A great read, and will challenge even the most agile mind.