W. E. B. Dubois (Bloom's Modern Critical Views) - Hardcover

Gr 9 Up-During his long life, the controversial DuBois, who eventually embraced communism and left the U.S. for Ghana, focused his extraordinary intellect and insight on racial discrimination and strategies for overcoming its effects. Twelve scholarly essays, articles, and book excerpts published between the 1960s and the present by distinguished scholars analyze various aspects of Du Bois's life and work. For example, Henry Louis Gates Jr. examines his efforts over more than five decades to spark the creation of a pan-African encyclopedia, while Michael B. Katz and Thomas J. Sugrue look at Du Bois's years as a young professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1890s. Other selections discuss the man's aesthetic and political views, his creative writing, and his literary standing. Students may find the first essay particularly interesting; in an excerpt from his autobiography, Du Bois vividly re-creates his New England college days as "a member of a segregated caste" while he prepared to become the first African American to receive a Harvard doctorate.

Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

"As Newsweek said: "A publishing venture almost without precedent..."