W.E.B. Du Bois's Reading List
The 5 books that shaped W.E.B. Du Bois — scholar & civil rights pioneer.
First Black American to earn a Harvard PhD, co-founder of the NAACP, and author of the concept of "double consciousness."
Influential Books
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois(1903)
Du Bois' masterwork — the "color line," double consciousness, and the spiritual strivings of Black Americans.
Black Reconstruction in America
W.E.B. Du Bois(1935)
Du Bois' radical rewriting of Reconstruction history — proving that Black Americans were agents, not victims.
The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels(1848)
Du Bois moved toward socialism throughout his life, seeing class struggle as inseparable from racial justice.
The Phenomenology of Spirit
G.W.F. Hegel(1807)
Du Bois studied Hegel in Berlin. The master-slave dialectic deeply informed his concept of double consciousness.
Up from Slavery
Booker T. Washington(1901)
Washington's autobiography — the rival vision Du Bois spent his career arguing against and refining his own position in response to.