W. E. B. Du Bois and American Political Thought Fabianism and the Color Line [Paperback]

In this explosive book, Adolph Reed covers for the first time the full sweep and totality of W. E. B. Du Bois's political thought. Departing from existing scholarship, Reed locates the sources of Du Bois's thought in the cauldron of reform-minded intellectual life at the turn of the century, demonstrating that a commitment to liberal collectivism, an essentially Fabian socialism, remained pivotal in Du Bois's thought even as he embraced a range of political programs over time, including radical Marxism. He remaps the history of twentieth-century progressive thought and sharply criticizing recent trends in Afro-American, literary, and cultural studies.

Adolph Reed's book is quite simply brilliant. It liberates Du Bois scholarship from a host of disfiguring anachronisms. By persuasively establishing the specific intellectual context within which Du Bois worked, Reed systematically reinterprets the meaning and significance of Du Bois's most influential writings. The logic is searing, the scholarship is impeccable, and, as always with Reed, there's a bristling polemical punchline as well. Anyone who takes Du Bois seriously must come to terms with this book. --James Oakes, CUNY Graduate Center

[Reed's] stubborn belief in class politics, his fury at the self-satisfaction of intellectuals, and his repudiation of postmodern fashion...make him a rare tonic. --The Nation

Adolph L. Reed, Jr.is a member of the Graduate Faculty of Political Science at the New School of Social Research. He has been a regular columnist forThe Village Voiceand a frequent contributor toThe ProgressiveandThe Nation.