Du Bois's Dialectics: Black Radical Politics and the Reconstruction of Critical Social Theory

About the Book

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.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 Preface and Acknowedgments: Du Bois's Dialectics and the Africana Tradition of Critical Theory
Chapter 2 1. Introduction: Du Bois, the Renewal of Black Radical Politics, and the Reconstruction of Critical Social Theory
Chapter 3 2. Africana Critical Pedagogy: Du Bois's Philosophy of Education, Sociology of Education, Anthropology of Education, and Critical Educational Theory
Chapter 4 3. The Du Bois-Washington Debate: Social Leadership, Intellectual Legacy, and the Lingering Problematics of African American Politics
Chapter 5 4. The Prophet of Problems: Du Bois's Philosophy of Religion, Sociology of Religion, Critique of the Black (and White) Church, and Critical Theory of Liberation Theology
Chapter 6 5. Critical Reparations Theory: Du Bois's Revolutionary Pan-Africanism and Revolutionary Humanism
Chapter 7 6. Conclusion: The Souls of Black Radical Folk: Du Bois, Africana Studies, and the Crises of Contemporary Critical Social Theory

About the Author :
Reiland Rabaka is associate professor of Africana studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is also an affiliate professor of women and gender studies and a research fellow at the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America (CSERA). He is also the recipient of the Cheikh Anta Diop Distinguished Career Award.

Review :
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. Rabaka's work is a must read as it truly makes an important contribution to the body of literature on Du Bois and critical theory. It moves us in a new direction, forcing us to think outside the intellectual box. The book will serve a variety of purposes for historians, sociologists, political scientists...and students who are in search of new ways to understand the complex array of Du Bois' thought, ideas, methods and resources. I highly recommend this book for academic reading and analysis.... Rabaka's Du Bois's Dialectics is a pathbreaking work infused with intellectual integrity, thought-provoking insights, encyclopedic scope, and deep cross-disciplinary ramifications that we will be talking about for many years. W. E. B. Du Bois would be proud of this remarkable achievement.

Rabaka's work is a must read as it truly makes an important contribution to the body of literature on Du Bois and critical theory. It moves us in a new direction, forcing us to think outside the intellectual box.

The book will serve a variety of purposes for historians, sociologists, political scientists...and students who are in search of new ways to understand the complex array of Du Bois' thought, ideas, methods and resources. I highly recommend this book for academic reading and analysis.

A reading of Du Bois's Dialectics will provide a foundation for understanding not only the work of racial/ethnic family studies scholars, family sociologists, and critical race theorists but also publications by recent feminist family studies scholars who have addressed the importance and challenges of theorizing different, identity, and intersectionality and practicing self-reflexivity in family studies research.