Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois)

W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history. Black Reconstruction in America tells and interprets the story of the twenty years of Reconstruction from the point of view of newly liberated African Americans. Though lambasted by critics at the time of its publication in 1935, Black Reconstruction has only grown in historical and literary importance. In the 1960s it joined the canon of the most influential revisionist historical works. Its greatest achievement is weaving a credible, lyrical historical narrative of the hostile and politically fraught years of 1860-1880 with a powerful critical analysis of the harmful effects of democracy, including Jim Crow laws and other injustices. With a series introduction by editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an introduction by David Levering Lewis, this edition is essential for anyone interested in African American history.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He has edited several major reference works, including Dictionary of African Biography, African American Lives, Africana, and African American National Biography. In addition, he is Editor in Chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center (www.oxfordaasc.com).

Series Introduction: The Black Letters on the SignIntroductionTo the ReaderI. The Black WorkerII. The White WorkerIII. The PlanterIV. The General StrikeV. The Coming of the LordVI. Looking BackwardVII. Looking ForwardVIII. The Transubstantiation of a Poor WhiteIX. The Price of DisasterX. The Black Proletariat in South CarolinaXI. The Black Proletariat in Mississippi and LouisianaXII. The White Proletariat in Alabama, Georgia, and FloridaXIII. The Duel for Labor Control on Border and FrontierXIV. Counter-Revolution of ProperyXV. Founding the Public SchoolXVI. Back Toward SlaveryXVII. The Propaganda of HistoryBibliographyIndexWilliam Edward Burghardt Du Bois: A ChronologySelected Bibliography