This magisterial work is not a book for the casual reader who wants little more than a few facts about the life of W.E.B. Du Bois. It is a complex tapestry of a troubled man who saw himself as "the avatar of a race whose troubled fate he was predestined to interpret and direct." Lewis clearly wishes to show how Du Bois was "the incomparable mediator of the wounded souls of black people." This is a very rich and full biography. There are many asides and digressions as Lewis takes the reader into the troubled world of the educated African American at the end of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. The conflicts and turmoil among Du Bois' "Talented Tenth" are vividly brought to the fore as the struggle between the Tuskegee Machine of Booker Washington and the more "radical" Du Bois faction takes center stage.

Du Bois' development and personal history are thoroughly covered as are all his important writings. He is shown to be a high-energy, brilliant man who was terribly frustrated and somewhat warped by the lack of intellectual and professional respect afforded him by the dominant white society. Du Bois is revealed to be a very human, if rather arrogant, and at times, hypocritical individual. He never outgrew, for instance, the racial stereotyping he learned at the German universities. Throughout his life he retained a deep ambivalence about Western civilization, almost a love-hate relationship that eventually fed his Afro-centrist delusions. Beneath it all one senses a degree of racial self-hatred at work. At times Du Bois waxes between practical political proposals for the United States and a quite utopian or mystical view of the possibilities of the colored people around the world. Along the way the reader is introduced to an amazing number of fascinating people involved in philanthropy and the early civil rights movement. John and Lugenia Hope, the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, early founders of the N.A.A.C.P. like Oswald Villard, Joel Spingarn, and Mary Ovington, and the irrepressible William Monroe Trotter are just a few of the individuals who rightly have their lives celebrated in this eye-opening account.

Lewis is especially strong in depicting the limitations of the viewpoint and the activity of the white philanthropists and the developing conflicts between white organized labor and the poor black migrants moving to the northern cities during the "Great Migration." Throughout Lewis demonstrates total command of the material as well as a comprehension of philosophy, history, and the issues of the day. Overall, this is a marvelous look at the life of an important and complicated man as well as the evolving fortunes of the African American community. Lewis has given us a balanced and fair assessment of Du Bois the man and scholar. And, along the way, he provides a ringing indictment of much of American life in the one hundred years following the Civil War. This Pulitzer Prize winning work is a book for the patient and learned reader, but a book that returns great rewards. There are few, if any, books that so thoroughly document the struggle for civil rights in this country from the perspective of America's educated black community.


Telling of a profound life with detail and great skill   April 22, 1999
22 out of 25 found this review helpful

I have been in awe of William Edward Burghardt DuBois since I read "The Souls of Black Folk" in 1967. As a ninth grader in the heart of the civil rights era, his passion for intelligence and his people moved me. I have longed to read the history of his life since. Lewis' book more than satisfied my longing. Lewis writes artisticly. The language sometimes caused me to stop and enjoy the words on paper as DuBois' writngs had in 1967. I understand the Pulitzer award, the text is brilliant and the research complete. The life of W.E.B. DuBois is even greater than the writing. This life deserved the best possible writing and research. I am amazed with the effort spent on the lifes of mere celebrities. Lives of great people such as DuBois deserve study. This life requires two volumes as Mr. Lewis intends. This life, W. E. B. DuBois, explores many of the issues we face today with race in America. As detailed by Mr. Lewis there is little experienced since the end of slavery Dr. DuBois and not considered in his thoughts or experienced in his life. The debates of the sixties between seperation or intergration were not new to DuBuois. He challenged Marcus Garvey. The thoughts of todays Black conservatives would have been understod by DuBois. He debated with Booker T. Washington. Lewis allows us to understand the debates in their time and place. DuBois departure from America in the ninth decade of his life can be understood if we know the depths of his commitment to the american ideals of freedom and meritocracy. America broke his heart. Reading his life will help all understand the way America breaks the heart of many who accept her ideals, try to live them, and are rejeced. It hurts. I have been waiting for the second volume since the day I finished the first.


The Warrior and His Pen   June 2, 2009
Franklin the Mouse (Gorham, ME USA)
Sociologist, economist, historian, feminist, propogandist...W.E.B. Du Bois was a man of breathtakingly stellar intellect. He became the leading voice in the struggle for black equality and a glaring refutation, held by most whites, that African-Americans were an inferior race. But along with his huge powers of literary persuasion came a man that was arrogant, childishly egocentric, pompous as well as a subpar husband and father. You can not truly have an appreciation of Black America's struggles after the Civil War without understanding this iconic, heroic figure. His clashes with the black political-heavyweight Booker T. Washington, the founding of the NAACP, the rise of Jim Crow as well as the odious tactics of several U.S. Presidents and white powerbrokers are covered. Mr. Lewis takes great pains to explain the cultural mind-set at important junctures in Mr. Du Bois' life. The author has produced an outstanding, engrossing biography of the subject matter's first fifty-one years. Without a doubt, my next book is Mr. Lewis' follow-up volume dealing with the remainder of Mr. Du Bois' life.


Brilliant   March 10, 2010
BookWoman/BookMan TV REVIEWS (Nashville, Tn United States)
"This is already the classic work from the life of the firebrand revolutionary, writer, scholar and political activist Du Bois who helped create the NAACP and who traveled in a Jim Crow car to attend Fisk University."


What A Brillant Man   February 26, 2000
mistermaxxx@yahoo.com (usa)
5 out of 23 found this review helpful

i was floored upon finishing this book.this Man was a pure GENIUS.his IDeas&Structures were Years ahead of the pack.his words were Forerunners for the same problems we face today that he faced back when he was Growing up.his Challenges&Debates were Legendairy.his vision of the world far exceeded any President then or now.his only SIn was his SKin.were if he were WHite he WOuld on a Dollar Bill.his Impact on the world will last till the end of time.