The Negro

by W. E. B. Du Bois

Overview

This classic treatise by W. E. B. Du Bois (1869-1963), the most important African American leader of the first half of the twentieth century and the cofounder of the NAACP, presents a brief history of Africa and people of African descent. To appreciate this pioneering work, published in 1915, it is important to recall its historical context. At the start of the last century, most whites had no appreciation of African Americans as fellow human beings worthy of dignity or as inheritors of a rich and varied culture. Faced with this seemingly insurmountable wall of racism, Du Bois's stance against the injustice of the time takes on heroic proportions. Through his writings he hoped to dispel the vast ignorance about black people that fed the racism of most whites. The Negro remains valuable to this day as a ground-breaking work. In an age of colonialism and blatant discrimination, Du Bois succeeded in proving that black people were inheritors of a proud cultural legacy and a long history. He thus laid the foundation for later generations of scholars. This edition is complemented by an informative introduction by Kenneth W. Goings, professor and chair of African-American and African Studies at The Ohio State University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781500596644
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	07/21/2014
Pages:	84
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.17(d)

About the Author

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963), also known as William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, was a prolific writer, scholar and civil rights activist. He was born in Massachusetts to a family of mixed African and European ancestry. Du Bois attended an integrated primary school before enrolling in Fisk Universityin Nashville, Tennessee. He was encouraged to pursue higher education, which inspired him to empower other Black people. Du Bois’ storied legacy includes becoming the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, as well as co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Table of Contents

	Preface	21
I	Africa	23
II	The Coming of Black Men	33
III	Ethiopia and Egypt	43
IV	The Niger and Islam	59
V	Guinea and Congo	73
VI	The Great Lakes and Zymbabwe	89
VII	The War of Races at Land's End	101
VIII	African Culture	113
IX	The Trade in Men	147
X	The West Indies and Latin America	163
XI	The Negro in the United States	183
XII	The Negro Problems	225
	Suggestions for Further Reading	235
	Index	247
	Maps
	The Physical Geography of Africa	22
	Ancient Kingdoms of Africa	100
	Races in Africa	112
	Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern	233

Editorial Reviews

Du Bois's 1915 volume is one of the earliest histories of African peoples and their cultures. It runs from European colonization to the 20th century. (LJ 8/01) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Holt published the general history of African Americans in 1915, the year the death of Booker T. Washington left Du Bois (1868- 1963) as nearly the sole African American political and intellectual leader. Kenneth W. Goings (African-American and Africana studies, Ohio State U.-Columbus) contributes an introduction placing it in the context of his life and the times. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Hot on the heels of David Levering Lewis's second and final volume of his DuBois biography comes this scholarly yet engaged study of the African diaspora, first published in 1915, and left out of the collected DuBois published by The Library of America. Like Lewis, the editors no doubt considered this a minor work by the controversial intellectual (1868—1963), whose long career spanned the centuries, ending with this co-founder of the NAACP as a hardened communist. But Robert Gregg, who provides a helpful afterword here, argues the merits of a this wide-ranging narrative that begins with prehistoric Africa, follows the migrations to Egypt, the engagement with Islam, the self-sufficiency of pre—slave-era Africa, and the passages to the Caribbean and the US. Not just relevant in terms of DuBois's career, as Gregg documents, this even-tempered treatise serves as "history, anthropology, social commentary" and "as an elegy on the condition of migrancy." DuBois also anticipates the better Afrocentric scholarship, and the notion that race is a social construct. Important by any standard.

Kirkus Reviews

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

New York Times

"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

"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

From the Publisher