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Summary
Summary
Stanley Crouch teams up with noted journalist Playthell Benjamin for this thought-provoking look back at The Souls of Black Folk, the epochal, prophetic work by the great African-American intellectual W. E. B. DuBois. Crouch -- and internationally recognized jazz critic, syndicated columnist, and author -- and Behnjamin appraise the contributions of DuBois's work, noting its uncanny relevance to today's society and its profound impact on the field of African-American studies. Reconsidering the Souls of Black Folk is a fitting tribute to a literary and sociological triumph.
Author Notes
Stanley Lawrence Crouch was an author, poet, music and cultural critic, essayist and columnist. He was born on December 14, 1945 in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from high school in 1963, he attended several junior colleges and became active in the civil rights movement. He became poet-in-residence at Pitzer College in in 1968. In 1975, he taught theater and literature at Pomona College.
He moved to New York City in 1975 and worked as a musician and conducted bookings for an avant-garde jazz series at clubs. In 1980, he was hired as a staff writer for the Village Voice. In 1988, he was fired after a fistfight with a fellow writer. He then worked as a syndicated columnist based at the New York Daily News.
His anthologies included Noted of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979-1989; The All-American Skin Game, or, The Decoy of Race: The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994; Always in Pursuit: Fresh American Perspectives, 1995-1997; and Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz. His fiction included, Don't the Moon Look Lonesome: A Novel in Blues and Swing. He wrote a biography, The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker.
In 2016, he was awarded the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize.
Stanley Crouch died on September 16, 2020 in New York City at the age of 74.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pioneering black sociologist and public intellectual W.E.B. DuBois set the terms of debate about race in 20th-century America in The Souls of Black Folk. In this vigorous dialogue, two contemporary black intellectuals assess DuBois's ideas and legacy for the centenary of his most famous work: his evocation of the "double consciousness" of African-Americans in a racist society; his advocacy of the black "talented tenth"; and his challenge to Booker T. Washington's nonconfrontational program of downplaying black civil and political rights in favor of economic advancement. In his two long and generally appreciative essays, historian and journalist Benjamin fills in the educational and intellectual milieu that influenced DuBois (especially the Romantic German nationalism he absorbed during a stint in Berlin), celebrates his nuanced, pathbreaking explorations of black culture and psychology, and defends him against charges of elitism by present-day writers. The much shorter responses by playwright and critic Crouch (Notes of a Hanging Judge) are more critical: he castigates DuBois for his embrace of black separatism, Marxism and Pan-Africanism. (That the latter two "sins" take place entirely outside of Souls doesn't seem to bother Crouch.) Crouch spins DuBois as a betrayer of the Enlightenment principles of equality and democracy that he thinks should be the philosophical foundations of blacks' struggle for freedom. The authors' vigorously opinionated styles (Benjamin attacks Cornel West for his "pretentious mumbo-jumbo" and Adolph Reed for being a "pugnacious misanthrope," while Crouch launches blistering tirades against "greasy crackers" and Communists alike) can be wearying, and the result is that this dispatch, while often provocative, just as often has little to do with the seminal book that gives Crouch and Benjamin their title. (Mar.) Forecast: A 50,000-copy first printing and $25,000 ad campaign seem predicated on New York Daily News columnist Crouch's popularity. Too late for Black History Month, this book will have to rely on Crouch's cachet, on the continued centrality of Souls to college and other curricula and on the combined strength of the press's series of textual reexaminations (see -p. 62 for another example). (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Although initially attracting scant attention when the accomplished researcher and author W.E.B. DuBois published his slim volume of essays in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk has remained in print and become one of the most challenging books on race relations ever published. It is clearly a must-read for anyone interested in American social development and can be understood by anyone with the vaguest background in US history and race relations. The controversial essays "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others" and "Of the Training of Black Men," for example, were open for debate at the time DuBois wrote them, and the debate continues. The 100th anniversary of this book has resulted in a spate of titles about both the classic and its author. Crouch and Benjamin's Reconsidering contains interesting ideas and raises many good points, but overall it is a disappointment. The writing is convoluted and obtuse; Crouch and Benjamin do not interact well; and grammatical and typographical errors appear regularly enough to be distracting. Clearly supportive of DuBois and his goals, the authors fall far short of his brilliance in both thinking and writing. Hubbard's edited collection purports to be eclectic, with contributors representing a wide variety of academic disciplines. However, these essays, uneven in quality, add little to the DuBois canon. Part of the problem is that DuBois's essays are so clearly constructed that ponderous analysis adds little to their strength and beauty. Academics more interested in demonstrating their intellect do little to generate interest in Souls. While there is some value in this collection (Hubbard's introductory essay is insightful and worthwhile), readers would learn more by reading or rereading DuBois and drawing their own conclusions. Readers and librarians would be well advised to spend time and money on other works reviewing the place of DuBois in 20th-century US life. ^BSumming Up: Both titles--optional. Crouch--general readers and lower-division undergraduates; Hubbard--faculty. D. R. Jamieson Ashland University
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 4 |
| Playthell Benjamin | |
| I The Souls of Black Folk: Poetry, Prophecy, Pioneering Social Science | p. 6 |
| II The Historical Context in Which Souls Was Born | p. 8 |
| III The Struggle For a First-Rate Liberal Education | p. 14 |
| IV The Struggle to Study Abroad | p. 23 |
| V The Engaged Scholar Takes the Field | p. 30 |
| VI The Philadelphia Negro | p. 35 |
| VII The Philadelphia Negro: A Final Word | p. 50 |
| VIII Some Antecedents of Souls | p. 51 |
| A reply from Stanley Crouch: A Two-Part Invention on the Black Willie Blues | |
| I Blues To Be There | p. 69 |
| II Blues in the Background | p. 79 |
| Playthell Benjamin | |
| IX The Souls of Black Folk: Interpreting the Text | p. 102 |
| X A Note on Life After Souls | p. 141 |
| XI Some Reflections on the Legacy of W.E.B. DuBois | p. 157 |
| XII The Legacy (Part II) | p. 185 |
| XIII The Historians | p. 186 |
| XIV The Legacy (Part III) | p. 199 |
| XV The Sociologists | p. 200 |
| XVI Some Parting Thoughts | p. 211 |
| A reply from Stanley Crouch | |
| III A Hundred Years Hence: Blues to Be DuBois | p. 214 |
| IV The Legacy of DuBois | p. 244 |
