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

Sociology Africana Studies Book jacket.

Du Bois's Dialectics is doubly distinguished from other books on W. E. B. 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. Reiland 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 and advanced undergraduate and graduate students working in and associated with Africana studies, American studies, ethnic studies, and cultural studies. 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).