W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race (Owl Books) [Paperback]

David Levering Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1994 | Series: Owl Books

This monumental biography--eight years in the research and writing--treats the early and middle phases of a long and intense career: a crucial fifty-year period that demonstrates how Du Bois changed forever the way Americans think about themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A remarkable study . . . . Mr. Lewis so vividly evokes the environments that shaped Du Bois that one almost participates in the life."
--Waldo E. Martin, Jr., The New York Times Book Review

"An engrossing masterpiece . . . . A dazzling feat of scholarship performed with Lewis's customary grace of style."--Nell Irvin Painter, The Washington Post Book World

"To say that Lewis's is the finest biography of Du Bois ever written hardly does justice to his performance. Until the publication of this superb new book, Du Bois's life had never received the treatment it deserves."--Eric Foner, The Nation

"A marvel of scholarship and discernement. David Levering Lewis's remarkable, stunningly detailed book reshapes our understanding of Du Bois at so many points as to instantly become the standard biography."--Martin Bauml Duberman

About the Author

David Levering Lewis is the Martin Luther King Jr., chair in the history at Rutgers University. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Woodrow Wilson International Center, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Educated at Fisk and Columbia Universities and the London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor Lewis is the author of several acclaimed books, including King: A Biography, When Harlem Was in Vogue, The Race to Fashoda. He and his wife live in Manhattan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 752 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (December 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805035680
• ISBN-13: 978-0805035681
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Magisterial Study of the Struggles of a Man and His Race March 3, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Prior to reading volume one of David Lewis' "W.E.B. Du Bois:Biography of a Race" I was somewhat puzzled by the subtitle. But the significance of the subtitle becomes clear as one progresses through the book because Lewis does a wonderful job of tying Du Bois' life, thought, personality, and political activity to the evolving fortunes of African Americans as a people. Like all great biographies this one places Du Bois squarely in his social and historical environment. The result is that one gains deep insight into the plight of African America in the Age of Jim Crow as well as the various divisions within that community over strategies for dealing with the greater society.

This magisterial work is not a book for the casual reader who wants little more than a few facts about the life of W.E.B. Du Bois. It is a complex tapestry of a troubled man who saw himself as "the avatar of a race whose troubled fate he was predestined to interpret and direct." Lewis clearly wishes to show how Du Bois was "the incomparable mediator of the wounded souls of black people." This is a very rich and full biography. There are many asides and digressions as Lewis takes the reader into the troubled world of the educated African American at the end of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. The conflicts and turmoil among Du Bois' "Talented Tenth" are vividly brought to the fore as the struggle between the Tuskegee Machine of Booker Washington and the more "radical" Du Bois faction takes center stage.

Du Bois' development and personal history are thoroughly covered as are all his important writings.... He is shown to be a high-energy, brilliant man who was terribly frustrated and somewhat warped by the lack of intellectual and professional respect afforded him by the dominant white society. Du Bois is revealed to be a very human, if rather arrogant, and at times, hypocritical individual. He never outgrew, for instance, the racial stereotyping he learned at the German universities. Throughout his life he retained a deep ambivalence about Western civilization, almost a love-hate relationship that eventually fed his Afro-centrist delusions. Beneath it all one senses a degree of racial self-hatred at work. At times Du Bois waxes between practical political proposals for the United States and a quite utopian or mystical view of the possibilities of the colored people around the world. Along the way the reader is introduced to an amazing number of fascinating people involved in philanthropy and the early civil rights movement. John and Lugenia Hope, the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, early founders of the N.A.A.C.P. like Oswald Villard, Joel Spingarn, and Mary Ovington, and the irrepressible William Monroe Trotter are just a few of the individuals who rightly have their lives celebrated in this eye-opening account.

Lewis is especially strong in depicting the limitations of the viewpoint and the activity of the white philanthropists and the developing conflicts between white organized labor and the poor black migrants moving to the northern cities during the "Great Migration." Throughout Lewis demonstrates total command of the material as well as a comprehension of philosophy, history, and the issues of the day. Overall, this is a marvelous look at the life of an important and complicated man as well as the evolving fortunes of the African American community. Lewis has given us a balanced and fair assessment of Du Bois the man and scholar. And, along the way, he provides a ringing indictment of much of American life in the one hundred years following the Civil War. This Pulitzer Prize winning work is a book for the patient and learned reader, but a book that returns great rewards. There are few, if any, books that so thoroughly document the struggle for civil rights in this country from the perspective of America's educated black community. Read more ›

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling of a profound life with detail and great skill April 22, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I have been in awe of William Edward Burghardt DuBois since I read "The Souls of Black Folk" in 1967. As a ninth grader in the heart of the civil rights era, his passion for intelligence and his people moved me. I have longed to read the history of his life since. Lewis' book more than satisfied my longing. Lewis writes artisticly. The language sometimes caused me to stop and enjoy the words on paper as DuBois' writngs had in 1967. I understand the Pulitzer award, the text is brilliant and the research complete. The life of W.E.B. DuBois is even greater than the writing. This life deserved the best possible writing and research. I am amazed with the effort spent on the lifes of mere celebrities. Lives of great people such as DuBois deserve study. This life requires two volumes as Mr. Lewis intends. This life, W. E. B. DuBois, explores many of the issues we face today with race in America. As detailed by Mr. Lewis there is little experienced since the end of slavery Dr. DuBois and not considered in his thoughts or experienced in his life. The debates of the sixties between seperation or intergration were not new to DuBuois. He challenged Marcus Garvey. The thoughts of todays Black conservatives would have been understod by DuBois. He debated with Booker T. Washington. Lewis allows us to understand the debates in their time and place. DuBois departure from America in the ninth decade of his life can be understood if we know the depths of his commitment to the american ideals of freedom and meritocracy. America broke his heart. Reading his life will help all understand the way America breaks the heart of many who accept her ideals, try to live them, and are rejeced. It hurts.... I have been waiting for the second volume since the day I finished the first. Read more ›

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars thoroughly researched, great subject, but dull reading January 1, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I wanted to learn about W.E. B. Dubois and I did --the book is thoroughly researched --but at times there is too much detail; as an example, sometimes DuBois the man seemed hidden in digressions which covered his writings in what seemed to me excessive detail. I admired the work and analysis required to reach this level of specificity but regretted that there was relatively little about his day to day life and that there was not tighter editing and crisper prose.

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Life... October 3, 2012

By Sonya Bell

Format:Paperback

While writing my book, A Journey Into The Mind of a Black Woman, A Journey Into The Mind of a Black Woman: In Search Of Black Men Who Live With Purpose I read this 2-volume biography of one of the greatest minds from Black America. Not only was his accomplishments impressive, as to be expected; Lewis gives us a 3-D picture of who Du Bois really was as a person: he was passionate, engaging and brave. The battles that he had with Booker T. Washington and then Marcus Garvey were mainly philosophical, but what could have happened if these three men could have worked together.

This book is a great read and is highly recommended for serious readers.

5.0 out of 5 stars Game Changer September 13, 2012

By Top39

Format:Paperback

This book gave me a lot of information that changed my opinion on public policy. It was written to do more than just discuss DuBois' life. By detailing the overall picture of that era and including biographies of other famous Afro Americans of that time, it put specific events into a perspective that I did not have before reading this book. One of the many changes that I experienced was the view of segregation. I did not know that many leaders were pushing for separate facilities for the recently freed slaves; that everyone for a short period was on board, and only after the concept was perverted by southern whites did the damage of segregation rear its ugly head. There were many other lessons about leadership and civil rights that are important for us all to know. This is a must read for all!