Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil [Paperback]

Essential reading for students of African-American history

The distinguished American civil rights leader, W. E. B. Du Bois first published these fiery essays, sketches, and poems individually nearly 80 years ago in theAtlantic, theJournal of Race Development,and other periodicals. Part essay, part autobiography,Darkwaterexplicitly addresses significant issues, such as the oppression of women and Eurocentric standards of beauty, the historical rise of the idea of whiteness, and the abridgement of democracy along race, class, and gender lines. Reflecting the author’s ideas as a politician, historian, and artist, this volume has long moved and inspired readers with its militant cry for social, political, and economic reforms for black Americans.“Du Bois essentially defined black America in the 20th century with his notion of ‘double consciousness’—the idea that African Americans experience everything in this world both as Americans and as black people. Scholars have come up shaky in their efforts to update Du Bois’s simple, but ingenious formula.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates

“[Du Bois was] the greatest of the early civil-rights leaders, a figure of towering significance in American politics and letters … Remembered for his single-minded commitment to racial justice and his capacity to shape black consciousness, Du Bois used language and ideas to hammer out a strategy for political equality and to sound the depths of the black experience in the aftermath of slavery.”
—Stuart Hall

“The greatest of the early civil-rights leaders, a figure of towering significance in American politics and letters.”
—Guardian

“Du Bois’ philosophy is significant today because it addresses what many would argue is the real world problem of white domination.So long as racist white privilege exists, and suppreslóå