The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History is the first published comprehensive interpretation of W.E.B. Du Bois’ educational thought.
Historian Derrick P. Alridge, associate professor in the College of Education and director of the UGA Institute for African-American Studies, moves beyond the overly discussed “debates” between Booker T. Washington and Du Bois to provide fresh insights into Du Bois’ educational thinking.
Alridge draws on a plethora of published and unpublished primary sources to illuminate
Du Bois’ educational thought on a wide variety of issues, such as women and education, black leadership, black identity, civil rights, black higher education, community education and academic achievement.
This incisive examination covers 70 years of Du Bois’ life, from his graduation as the first black Ph.D. recipient at Harvard University to his death in Ghana.
The book also shows how events such as lynchings, Reconstruction policies and Progressivism influenced Du Bois’ life and thinking. Du Bois’ relationship with Booker T. Washington and other African-American thinkers of his time is also traced.
