Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois Reader, The

The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois Reader. Edited by Eric J. Sundquist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. ix, 680 pp. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-19509178-7.

The end of this century is witnessing a flurry of scholarship on the career, writings, and legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois. David Levering Lewis's W E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 (New York) appeared in 1993, and Greenwood Press currently has an impressive Du Bois encyclopedia project in production. Not surprisingly, then, The Oxford W E. B. Du Bois Reader, edited by Eric J. Sundquist, appears to be another work appropriate for this cottage industry of centenary remembrance.

It was in the 1890s, the decade when legal, institutionalized Jim Crowism started, that Du Bois's career as a teacher and scholar of the African American experience began. Within a decade, the obscure intellectual, whose prose captivated as it enlightened, found himself rivaling Booker T. Washington as a racial spokesman of national consequence. In subsequent years, as an advocate of Pan Africanism and western decolonization, Du Bois developed into an international figure who heightened global racial consciousness and denounced social injustice at home and abroad.

Du Bois's remarkable lifetime (1868-1963) included two civil rights revolutions and the bitter interlude between these social crusades. A prolific writer, Du Bois lived much of the history that he wrote about; his work displays poignant understanding of the ebb and flow in the human spirit. Accordingly, the lines between fine history and fine literature blur in Du Bois's works, captivating the reader in the process. Sundquist's daunting editorial task was to cull Du Bois's extensive scholarship and produce a manageable volume that represented the complexity of a full professional life and conveyed the richness of his prose. The Oxford W E. B. Du Bois Reader includes complete editions of Du Bois's signature study, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and Darkwater (1920), his perceptive indictment of colonialism's inherent evils. Selected chapters from other studies convey both the breadth of Du Bois's scholarly interests and his profound sociological insight. No other single-volume collection includes such a wide representation of Du Bois's works. This reasonably priced paperback collection benefits teachers and students of African American history and literature who might use it to supplement traditional textbooks. Although this anthology has merit, a hidden pedagogic danger exists in presenting academic writings in an isolated, sanitized form apart from the conflicting ideas that give words meaning. For example, can one truly comprehend the debates waged between Du Bois and Washington by reading only one side of the story? I think not. The full significance and pertinence of Du Bois's writings can be grasped only through a comparative approach, through placing his ideas alongside those of his contemporaries. In this way, older ideas can gain new currency as students and other readers evaluate contrasting opinions that resonate clearly in the heated social debates of our modern world.

Those who peruse The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois Reader will find in it a secular canon addressing matters of racial injustice that continue to plague our national life. As hate crimes persist and a spate of church burnings in the 1990s evoke painful memories of a checkered history, we see once again the pressing need for racial dialogue in America. We can learn from history. Du Bois served as the conscience of a nation, challenging all, regardless of race, to aspire to loftier dreams. Du Bois's observation that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line" (p. 107) rings true as we approach the millennium; his writings still call a nation to task for neglecting its unfinished business.

JUNIUS P. RODRIGUEZ Eureka College

Copyright University of Alabama Press Jul 1998
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved