Restless Classics presents The Souls of Black Folk: W. E. B. Du
Bois's seminal work of sociology, with searing insights into our
complex, corrosive relationship with race and the African-American
consciousness. Reconsidered for the era of Obama, Trump, and Black Lives
Matter, the new edition includes an incisive introduction from rising
cultural critic Vann R. Newkirk II and stunning illustrations by the
artist Steve Prince.
Published in 1903, exactly forty years after the Emancipation
Proclamation, W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk fell into the
hands of an American nation that had still not yet found "peace from its
sins." With such deep disappointment among African-Americans still
awaiting full emancipation, Du Bois believed that the moderate and
conciliatory efforts of civil-rights leader Booker T. Washington could
only go so far. Taking to the page, Du Bois produced a resounding
declaration on the rights of the American man and laid out an agenda
that was at the time radical but has since proven prophetic. In fourteen
chapters that move fluidly between historical and sociological essays,
song and poetry, personal recollection and fiction, The Souls of Black
Folk frames "the color line" as the central problem of the twentieth
century and tries to answer the question, "Why did God make me an
outcast and a stranger in mine own house?" Striking in his psychological
precision as well as his political foresight, Du Bois advanced ithe
influential ideas of "double-consciousness"--an inner conflict created
by the seemingly irreconcilable "black" and "American" identities--and
"the veil," through which African-Americans must see a spectrum of
economic, social, and political opportunities entirely differently from
their white counterparts'.
Now, over fifty years after Du Bois's death and the Civil Rights Act, we
need this seminal work more urgently than ever. Long overdue for
reconsideration, it is the latest installment of Restless Classics,
featuring illustrations by master printmaker Steve Prince and a new
introduction by Atlantic staff writer Vann R. Newkirk II.
