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Title: Reconsidering the Souls of Black Folk by Stanley Crouch, Playthell Benjamin ISBN: 0-7624-1349-2 Publisher: Running Press Pub. Date: January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Smart, but not Stuffy
Comment: This is a very worthwhile read. As an introduction to the work of W.E.B. Du Bois or for someone like me who's read "The Souls of Black Folk" as well as David Levering Lewis's "Biography of a Race," this book is valuable because it personalizes some of Du Bois's scholarship and puts it in an interesting context. The scope is not limited to "The Souls of Black Folk" however, it's much broader than that. Benjamin provides a thorough overview of Du Bois's entire body of work while Crouch contributes some "speed and footwork as cold as a well-digger's posterior," to quote Ralph Ellison's prologue on invisibility. This is a smart book but not a dry academic work; it draws upon: current events, history, contemporary fiction, music, sports, everything. I've read it twice already and have referred back to it numerous times. I've also checked out a couple of additional books based on the authors' recommendations, like Roger Wilkins' "Jefferson's Pillow" and James Weldon Johnson's autobiography, "Along This Way." Benjamin especially, lays out the whole legacy of Du Bois's influence in sociology and political science, discussing important works by Harold Cruse and many others.
"The chords of unintended consequences were subjected to some extended blues choruses in which the tragic optimism of American democracy wafted through the atmosphere, setting loose enough building wind to blow the candles off of the table of slavery and burn down the house." Shelby Foote could not have put it any better than that! This is clearly some inspired writing by Crouch, and I've read a few of his books (plus all of his JazzTimes columns). He contributes only 70 of the book's 250 pages though, so instead of "trading twelves," the format is more like trading eighteens and sixes, but he says a lot in those six bars. Anyway, they might have acheived a more equal distribution by editing out some of Mr. Benjamin's attacks on other public intellectuals. He skewers public intellectuals the way Queequeg skewers sperm whales. The other suggestion I have is that Running Press might consider springing for an editor at more than minimum wage.
A couple of highlights for me are: Playthell Benjamin's extraordinary ten-page musicological analysis which traces strains of anti-Semitism in German culture to the music of Richard Wagner (terrible man, terrific music). Benjamin comes as close as he's going to get to chiding Du Bois for not making the connection, during his student days in Berlin, between the Teutonic "Strong Man" of his Harvard baccalaureate address and the Teutonic Strong Man of Wagner's pre-Christian operatic epic. I was also impressed by Stanley Crouch's presentation of what he sees as the African American legacy of intellectual opposition (of which Du Bois is a part) in the process of redefining (or "purifying," as he calls it) the Enlightenment ideals contained in the founding documents. Crouch provides excerpts from the writing of Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire as well as the correspondence between Benjamin Banneker and Thomas Jefferson. My description doesn't do it justice, but it's a brilliant analysis.
This is an opinionated book. Unlike Mr. Benjamin, I appreciate Gerald Early's writing and I also like "The Future of the Race," a Gates/West collaboration which includes a brilliant Cornel West essay about Du Bois and the "twilight" of the Age of Europe (1492-1945). Although largely positive, it is somewhat critical of Du Bois, as is Stanley Crouch here. But there seems to be a lot of common ground between Benjamin and Crouch on: the conception of the talented tenth, the towering achievement of Du Bois in general, and the importance of "The Souls of Black Folk" in particular. Their differences seem to lie mostly in Crouch's criticism of Du Bois's sociological bent, his vulnerability to Marxist theory, Pan-Africanism, and his ultimate position as a somewhat tragic figure. I really don't know the answer but I learned a lot from reading this. Everyone I know who's read this has dug it. Great book.
Rating: 1
Summary: Poor centennial reconsideration
Comment: The Souls of Black Folk is an American classic. Written before he turned 30, Dubois deals deftly with the central issues of not only the beginning of the twentieth century (black leadership, the color line, southern politics, reconstruction, the talented tenth, etc.) but the end as well. When I heard that Benjamin and Crouch were going to put something together in honor of it I awaited my copy with anticipation.
After having read it, at least I can say the cover is really nice.
This book was not a chore to read...the way Benjamin skewers a number of "public intellectuals" is funny at times. And though I seldom agree with Crouch on anything, I find that he has serious skills as a wordsmith. But the central problem is that the work is poorly edited (particularly Benjamin's contribution), and there is no way that this does the original justice. It's better than THE FUTURE OF THE RACE (a similar attempt by Gates and West), but that's not really saying much. Skip it and reread the original.
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Title: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois ISBN: 0486280411 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 20 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: Always in Pursuit : Fresh American Perspectives by STANLEY CROUCH ISBN: 0375701680 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Darkwater : Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. DuBois ISBN: 0486408906 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 04 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: All-American Skin Game, or, The Decoy of Race, The : The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994 by STANLEY CROUCH ISBN: 0679776605 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979-1989 by Stanley Crouch ISBN: 0195069986 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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