I finally got around to reading this classic. W.E.B. Du Bois' insights are as sharp as they are still relevant, over a century later. His reflections on the role of the pridon system could have been written days ago. His condemnation of "laziness" and "shiftlessness" is a bit jarring at times. However, being familiar with his later intellectual and political trajectory, traces of which are already visible in this work, I don't think this is how he would have approached the refusal / lack of desire to work later in life. 

after reading black reconstruction first i think u can tell dubois was a little younger writing this and a lot more of the interesting socialist interpolations here arent as especially and poetically pointed out as they mightve been later on in his life, but the introduction included dubois emphasis on his own continuing honesty in his work and this reads like one of the most heartwrenching most beautifully honest works 2 ever be written in the field of social sciences. i never understood why social sciences found themselves broken up and divided betweeen polysci socioogy anthropology etc. when for over a century authors like dubois have so masterfully demonstrated their nature as One and The Same.. this was beautiful. it touched on important sociological questions while emphasizing his own narrative and personal influence, and subsumes that into the study damn 'subjectivity'. it does read like it was written for white ppl and there r feels of elitism but all this has to be underscored by dubois' continuing honesty which makes this both a landmark book of study and a deeply personal look at his own Soul

The content itself was thought-provoking and interesting, but I also have to commend the wonderful language and form of this text. The placement of excerpts by established (white) poets alongside bars from the Soul Songs at the beginning of each essay was a wonderful way of highlighting the dignity and importance of marginalised cultures. Lots of interesting assessments of the effects of capitalism on American race relations population post-Emancipation as well.  

The fact that much of what is said here still holds so true today is heartbreaking 

 

I'd been wanting to get into W.E.B. Du Bois' works for some time, and when I saw this beautiful "Penguin Vitae" edition of The Souls of Black Folk: With the Talented Tenth and the Souls of White Folk, I knew I just had to have it.

Onto the contents of the book, there's a very nice introduction written by Ibram X. Kendi (author of How to Be an Antiracist, among many other greats), followed by some suggestions for further reading. After this, we finally begin The Souls of Black Folk.

Throughout the book, Du Bois swings back and forth between an almost poetic prose and a more traditional textbook style. Some may find this to be disjointed and/or annoying, but I personally enjoyed it. Books from this era and before tend to lose me off and on, especially denser works, however, I found myself laser-focused on Du Bois' observations and findings.

Comparing all these pages, written over a century ago, to the world as it exists today, we as a society really haven't progressed much.

W.E.B. Du Bois was an incredibly brilliant man, and while he wasn't without his own blind-spots and shortcomings, I would say that The Souls of Black Folk: With the Talented Tenth and the Souls of White Folk is a timeless, invaluable work of sociology, as well as an essential piece of African-American writing. 

I hope more and more people read the works of Du Bois and other great Black minds. 

the only thing i really have with this book is that dubois is pretty elitist and sexist in this text and it really shows in certain places. however, he gives a very beautiful and yummy critique on politics, the world, but ultimately the self and the moral problems that black people often go through. it is timeless and tense yet beautiful and moving. 

DuBois is incredibly verbose, but that’s to be expected with writers of the time period.