The Souls of Black Folk: Deep Review

Original academic guide to The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois.

• Academic Classics
• 29 min
• Ages 15–99
• 10 chapters

About this audiobook

Du Bois's foundational work of sociology, history, memoir, and criticism on race, Reconstruction, education, double consciousness, and the color line.

Why it's worth a listen

Present the book as a genre-breaking diagnosis of American modernity: lyrical, empirical, historical, and still central to understanding race and democracy.

Based on the book by W. E. B. Du Bois, published by Public domain classic

Chapters

1. The Problem This Book Is Trying To Solve
2. Historical and Intellectual Context: The Nadir of American Race Relations
3. The Central Argument: Modernity, Democracy, and the Color Line
4. Key Concepts: The Veil and Double Consciousness
5. The Critique of Accommodation: Du Bois versus Booker T. Washington
6. The Sorrow Songs: Music, Suffering, and the Soul of a Nation
7. Why Scholars Still Assign This Work
8. What Is Brilliant: The Lyrical and Empirical Synthesis
9. What Is Dangerous or Dated: Elitism and the Talented Tenth
10. How to Read This Book and Who Should Read It Now