The Negro

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 345K words
Chapters: 35

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Negro by W. E. B. Du BoisAuthor: Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963,Language: English, Class: HT: Social sciences: Communities, Classes, Races, Release Date: Mar 14, 2005

Editor's review

Du Bois's The Negro is a classic work that surveys the history and condition of people of African descent with remarkable breadth. Blending sociology and history, the author moves from the ancient civilizations of the African continent to slavery and emancipation in the Americas, and on to the fate of Black people worldwide under colonial systems. The book is brief but densely informative. It offers a cool-headed outline of historical developments while pressing a profound inquiry into racial inequality, in prose that is concise and argumentatively powerful. As a public-domain ebook, it serves well as an introductory text to early classic work in race studies, and rewards reading alongside American history and African diaspora studies. Readers would do well to place it in the intellectual context of the early twentieth century, to appreciate how the author builds a cross-regional narrative framework in limited space, and to note expressions marked by their era, absorbing its insights with a critical eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Beginning readers interested in sociology and race studies
Students of American history and African American history
Readers who wish to understand Du Bois's thought
Researchers and teachers in need of public-domain English historical sources

Not a good fit for

Casual readers seeking light storytelling
Readers seeking the latest contemporary data on racial issues
Those whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for academic texts

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and introduction to grasp the book's time span and geographic scope, then proceed chapter by chapter.
Read alongside a chronology of American or African history, marking key events and figures as you go.
Annotate claims bearing the marks of their era, distinguishing factual statements from the author's judgments.
If the English proves difficult, first read a reliable translation from cover to cover, then return to the original to check key passages.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What kind of work by Du Bois is this book?

It is a general survey written from a historical and sociological perspective, modest in length, intended to sketch the journey of Black peoples from ancient times to the modern era in concise form. It is neither a novel nor an autobiography, and is best treated as an introductory text for understanding his early thought.

Can readers without a background in race studies understand it?

Yes. The narrative line is relatively clear and does not depend on heavy technical terminology. It is advisable to read through once for the gist, look up unfamiliar historical events as they arise, and then review the author's arguments afterward for a deeper understanding.

What should readers keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?

Public-domain ebooks tend to have plain formatting and may lack modern annotations. Use reading software that supports annotation, jot down names and places as you encounter them, and verify them against reliable historical sources, so as not to mistake era-specific statements in the book for settled conclusions.

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About the author

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868 Author

W. E. B. Du Bois (full name William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, born 1868) was an African American scholar, writer, and social thinker. The library holds seven of his works, spanning history, social commentary, essays, and fiction. His best-known book, The Souls of Black Folk, portrays the inner world and double consciousness of Black Americans in a lyrical yet incisive style; Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil continues his scrutiny of social oppression and racial injustice; The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America reflects his rigorous historical scholarship; The Conservation of Races and related essays show his thinking on race theory; and the novel The Quest of the Silver Fleece weaves social issues into fiction. Public information is limited, and his dates and detailed biography remain to be supplemented, yet these works already reveal a writing style that combines scholarly depth with literary power, and his influence on American discussions of race has been profound.