Du Bois's Dialectics

Black Radical Politics and the Reconstruction of Critical Social Theory

By (author) Reiland Rabaka

Hardback - £108.00

Publication date:

26 September 2008

Length of book:

354 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739119570

Du Bois's Dialectics is doubly distinguished from other books on Du Bois because it is the first extended exploration of Du Bois's contributions to new critical theory and the first book-length treatment of his contributions to contemporary black radical politics and the developing discipline of Africana Studies. With chapters that undertake ideological critiques of education, religion, the politics of reparations, and the problematics of black radical politics in contemporary culture and society, Du Bois's Dialectics employs Du Bois as its critical theoretical point of departure and demonstrates his (and Africana Studies') contributions to, as well as contemporary critical theory's connections to, critical pedagogy, sociology of religion, and reparations theory. Rabaka offers the first critical theoretical treatment of the W. E. B. Du Bois—Booker T. Washington debate, which lucidly highlights Du Bois's transition from a bourgeois black liberal to a black radical and revolutionary democratic socialist. This book is primarily directed at scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students working in and associated with Africana Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Cultural Studies.
This rich, detailed study of W. E. B. Du Bois's scholarship appreciates the tremendous array of Du Bois's resources, methods, and diverse approaches to social thought and critical theory in a unique and thorough way.