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ashkitty93's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
5.0
Certainly deserves to be revisited in the future. Chapter 9 in particular should be printed out and used to wallpaper every statehouse in the nation, Congress included. Nicely narrated by Rodney Gardiner.
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callieju's review against another edition
5.0
wow this was truly incredibly written. i was expecting cut and dry socio-political dialogue which i struggle with sometimes but what i got was so much more. it was a story along with theory, Du Bois portrayed resilience and struggle and this is the first time i haven’t put a book down for multiple hours in a while. The use of black folk music throughout the essays was so powerful.
mrsmobarak's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
mrbear's review against another edition
3.0
A solid, though biased, history book. The writing was powerful and easy to read, I'm just not a fan of books that talk about how the world could have been so much better if something were to have happened. For example, when radical feminists say that the world would be better if women ruled it. It's just illogical: it would be the same, people's roles would just be jumbled. This books tries to present slavery in this same light, and is sort of frustrating for it.
katie_skean's review
Glad that I read this. The first few chapters I was like "This is surprisingly contemporary-sounding and accessible language," but then there were chapters with lots of "forsooth" and other old-timey words, and language reflecting the casual classism of his time like referring to "good breeding" or "the more intelligent classes of people." He had compassion for impoverished people and advocated for better educational and economic opportunities for them, so I would say he was anti-classist for his time, but these sorts of phrases can be jarring for the modern reader. (Even though there is still rampant classism and classist language today, obviously.) Similar jarring moments with some other issues as well. But it feels very good to have read such an important historical primary source document and to get a little more familiar with his writings firsthand. He was very insightful and courageous.