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W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography 1868-1963
The two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of W. E. B. Du Bois from renowned scholar David Levering Lewis, now in one condensed and updated volume William Edward Burghardt Du Bois—the premier architect of the civil rights movement in America—was a towering and controversial personality, a fiercely proud individual blessed with the language of the poet and the impatience of the agitator. Now, David Levering Lewis has carved one volume out of his superlative two-volume biography of this monumental figure that set the standard for historical scholarship on this era. In his magisterial prose, Lewis chronicles Du Bois’s long and storied career, detailing the momentous contributions to our national character that still echo today. W.E.B. Du Bois is a 1993 and 2000 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction and the winner of the 1994 and 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
912 pages, Hardcover
First published December 23, 2008
About the author
David Levering Lewis
42 books62 followersDavid Levering Lewis is the Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at New York University.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 3, 2019
Do not let the massive length of this biography or the dense phrasing of the narrative dissuade you from reading. It is well worth the read. Just budget plenty of time to read this book because it will take all the you budget and more.
Every American needs to read this biography if for nothing more than to rectify the white washing of history that so much of American history has undergone. I feel a little ashamed that I knew little if anything about all of the ongoing efforts of African Americans throughout the early decades of the 20th century. So many of my history books describe or imply that the events of the "Civil Rights Era" happened during that set period of time and at no other, perhaps because it makes white people finally look good with the passage of monumental Supreme Court decisions and Acts of Congress.
As to the man himself, Lewis wrote a biography that epitomizes Du Bois, intellectual, race-minded, and off-putting. While I would have appreciated a more objective treatment of Nina, Yolande and "baby" Du Bois, the author treats them authentically, as Du Bois himself did. He also broadened the scope significantly in many areas which also embodies the subject of the biography.
I highly recommend this biography but only if you are willing to put in the work.
Every American needs to read this biography if for nothing more than to rectify the white washing of history that so much of American history has undergone. I feel a little ashamed that I knew little if anything about all of the ongoing efforts of African Americans throughout the early decades of the 20th century. So many of my history books describe or imply that the events of the "Civil Rights Era" happened during that set period of time and at no other, perhaps because it makes white people finally look good with the passage of monumental Supreme Court decisions and Acts of Congress.
As to the man himself, Lewis wrote a biography that epitomizes Du Bois, intellectual, race-minded, and off-putting. While I would have appreciated a more objective treatment of Nina, Yolande and "baby" Du Bois, the author treats them authentically, as Du Bois himself did. He also broadened the scope significantly in many areas which also embodies the subject of the biography.
I highly recommend this biography but only if you are willing to put in the work.
March 29, 2020
A very good, well written, very exhaustive biography. Anything you could possibly want to know about Du Bois is in here. That this is a shorter version of Lewis's two-volume biography of the man is mind boggling. I cannot imagine reading more than what's here. Not that his life wasn't interesting. It was. Not only was he a wholly unique individual, but his history hews so closely to the history of African Americans from the late 1800's to the 1960's that this biography serves as a parallel history thereof. For that alone the book is worth reading.
Du Bois's life reminds me a lot of Douglass's. Not only were they both singularly intelligent and outspoken individuals, but their relationships with their families, their need to be seen as the ur-representative of their race and its struggles, and their efforts to remain so at the expense of others who, at their core, were fighting the same fight as these men were, show a startlingly similarity. I wish their lives had overlapped long enough for them to have had a more substantial professional relationship (or rivalry).
Du Bois's life reminds me a lot of Douglass's. Not only were they both singularly intelligent and outspoken individuals, but their relationships with their families, their need to be seen as the ur-representative of their race and its struggles, and their efforts to remain so at the expense of others who, at their core, were fighting the same fight as these men were, show a startlingly similarity. I wish their lives had overlapped long enough for them to have had a more substantial professional relationship (or rivalry).
January 3, 2022
Incredibly detailed overview of his life: the good, the bad and the ugly. It is as much a historical overview as an intellectual biography on his evolving political views and views on race and democracy.
April 29, 2019
I had to keep a dictionary at my side while reading. I could have glanced over the use of, what for me were lots of arcane vocabulary, and still been fine, but reading is learning.
Lewis's writing does justice to a towering intellect of his time. This book was a condensed version of a two volume work. I will be eternally grateful to Lewis for the condensed version, for I would never have attempted two volumes. As it is, this one is 700 pages.
Du Bois was a part of what was called "the talented tenth". Those were the educated Blacks of their time. The ones who studied their way into the Black educated elite. And he was brilliant for sure.
As I read, I thought, at first, that he knew he was brilliant, and had a condescending attitude about him and was full of himself. And today, I might just think that. But in his time, I would give him the latitude to be just that. He had a mighty mind. He traveled the world in the highest of intellectual circles. His interactions with European, African, and world leaders and intellectuals was simply fascinating. The world showed him the respect he deserved, but not in America.
Sections on the Pan African movement were intriguing.
His mostly polite, but pointed, rivalry with Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute in determining how to move the Black movement forward was enlightening. Washington wanted more of an economic, by the bootstrap, tradesman way forward for Black progress. Du Bois approached it more from the education-by-university learning (a bit of a simplification of the dynamic, as I write this).
What to say of Du Bois's dalliances (and there were many) with the opposite sex? Lewis treats them in the most genteel manner. His facade of family harmony was paramount to his image, but he did not really live up to it. His wife deserved better.
This book gives a glimpse into the rarified air of educated black society when there wasn't much of it out there. But is also does not take its eye off the evolving civil rights movement. It seems so obvious to say, the civil rights movement was more than MLK and Thurgood Marshall, but reading this book opened the movement up to all the nuances and growing pains at the "big bang".
A prime mover of the civil rights movement. Fascinating to read its beginnings. His contributions were enormous.
Lewis's writing does justice to a towering intellect of his time. This book was a condensed version of a two volume work. I will be eternally grateful to Lewis for the condensed version, for I would never have attempted two volumes. As it is, this one is 700 pages.
Du Bois was a part of what was called "the talented tenth". Those were the educated Blacks of their time. The ones who studied their way into the Black educated elite. And he was brilliant for sure.
As I read, I thought, at first, that he knew he was brilliant, and had a condescending attitude about him and was full of himself. And today, I might just think that. But in his time, I would give him the latitude to be just that. He had a mighty mind. He traveled the world in the highest of intellectual circles. His interactions with European, African, and world leaders and intellectuals was simply fascinating. The world showed him the respect he deserved, but not in America.
Sections on the Pan African movement were intriguing.
His mostly polite, but pointed, rivalry with Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute in determining how to move the Black movement forward was enlightening. Washington wanted more of an economic, by the bootstrap, tradesman way forward for Black progress. Du Bois approached it more from the education-by-university learning (a bit of a simplification of the dynamic, as I write this).
What to say of Du Bois's dalliances (and there were many) with the opposite sex? Lewis treats them in the most genteel manner. His facade of family harmony was paramount to his image, but he did not really live up to it. His wife deserved better.
This book gives a glimpse into the rarified air of educated black society when there wasn't much of it out there. But is also does not take its eye off the evolving civil rights movement. It seems so obvious to say, the civil rights movement was more than MLK and Thurgood Marshall, but reading this book opened the movement up to all the nuances and growing pains at the "big bang".
A prime mover of the civil rights movement. Fascinating to read its beginnings. His contributions were enormous.
June 21, 2026
A book I’ve been sitting with for a long time. There’s too much to say about DuBois and this exhaustively researched and contextualized presentation to fit here. It’s noteworthy that this 850-page tome (softcover) is a condensed version of two biographies of DuBois written by Levering Lewis, both of which won the Pulitzer.
As recognized as DuBois is, as I read this book I was struck by how little of his life and work I really knew, especially surprising in light of his influence throughout so much American history, sociology and especially civil rights. At the time of his 80th birthday, Levering Lewis writes, DuBois “stood on a pedestal occupied by no other American Negro, the senior intellectual of his race and its unexcelled propagandist — idolized or reviled, depending on the region of the United States and the complexion and education of his audience.”
Today it’s a wonder and a shame that there aren’t more public celebrations of Dubois, though Levering Lewis, who gives a very honest portrayal of the controversies and peculiarities of DuBois’ life and personality, gives some potential reasons as to why.
As recognized as DuBois is, as I read this book I was struck by how little of his life and work I really knew, especially surprising in light of his influence throughout so much American history, sociology and especially civil rights. At the time of his 80th birthday, Levering Lewis writes, DuBois “stood on a pedestal occupied by no other American Negro, the senior intellectual of his race and its unexcelled propagandist — idolized or reviled, depending on the region of the United States and the complexion and education of his audience.”
Today it’s a wonder and a shame that there aren’t more public celebrations of Dubois, though Levering Lewis, who gives a very honest portrayal of the controversies and peculiarities of DuBois’ life and personality, gives some potential reasons as to why.
July 4, 2026
Du Bois has now become one of my favorite Americans. He was overtly pretentious, at times an egoist, and completely unbending in his principles. He claimed in his autobiography that his story is the story of the century and the story of a race. I believe that is true. His story meanders through a constant changing of beliefs on how his people could liberate themselves that reflects the hard difficulties of his times. He was consistently decades ahead of public opinion, and almost always had to pay the price for it. He was still a complicated person, full of contradiction like the rest of us. Being one of the first to point out the that racial equality must come with sexual equality. About as much of a radical feminist as a radical black liberator. All the while being one of the greatest womanizers of his time, frequently cheating on and thoroughly ignoring anything to do with her well-being.
The author writes with great prose and the perfect amount of intellectual pretentiousness that a book on Du Bois deserves. He truthfully represents Du Bois and does not leave any of Du Bois’s ugly moments pass untold. My favorite book I’ve read all year and I’d highly recommend to anyone.
The author writes with great prose and the perfect amount of intellectual pretentiousness that a book on Du Bois deserves. He truthfully represents Du Bois and does not leave any of Du Bois’s ugly moments pass untold. My favorite book I’ve read all year and I’d highly recommend to anyone.
October 1, 2023
This was a detailed look at his life. It was sometimes tedious to read with lists of names, places, publications, etc. However, getting a different perspective on American history from the 1890s to about 1960 was well worth the effort. This perspective isn't taught in the schools I attended. Anyone interested in history in general would appreciate this book.
April 27, 2020
Dr. Lewis produced an exceptionally researched and combined narrative of a hard-working, exceptional, but somewhat controversial, figure in W.E.B. DuBois. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the P.E.G.S., associated with Civil Rights, from a magnificent minority's perspective.
May 26, 2024
One of the best biographies I've read, of a pivotal figure in American history.
October 1, 2025
Unequivocally the best biography I have ever read. I’m sad I finished it. More later…….
April 12, 2026
Detailed, scholarly to a fault
Overly verbose but full of insightful details about what fueled Du Bois, helped him succeed, and also what limited him.
Overly verbose but full of insightful details about what fueled Du Bois, helped him succeed, and also what limited him.
July 10, 2011
This is the condensed version of Lewis's 2 volume biography. Lewis did, I thought, an excellent job of placing DuBois in the context of the history of a people and his dreams of being the one to effect great changes.
March 12, 2026
My only critique is the fact the edition I read this in was a needlessly huge and unwieldy paperback. I've books with longer page counts that are significantly more compact.
This is the exact type of book I'm always craving.
This is the exact type of book I'm always craving.
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May 4, 2015Solid book. Well researched. I am, however, indifferent to Lewis' analysis. He often makes questionable allegations - in my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews