September Quote of the Month: Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents - W.E.B. Du Bois

A new month means a new inspirational quote! This September's comes from our Classic of the Month author:

"Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents"

- W.E.B. Du Bois, 1915

Originally published in 1899, The Philadelphia Negro is a sociological study of the blacks living in Philadelphia in 1896-7. DuBois was hired by the University of Pennsylvania to conduct the study, under what some believe to be false pretenses. Some suspect that the study was meant, by those funding it, to show how the black community was responsible for a number of problems within the city. The report they received, however, was of quite a different nature.

The Philadelphia Negro was the first sociological study of black urban Americans ever conducted. It detailed their lives, their social structures, their education, their marriages, and their jobs. The study sought to illuminate ways in which philanthropy could help the people living in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward. It did not presume, as many people did at the time, that blacks lived in poor conditions due to an innate weakness in their race. This scholarly work serves as an excellent reference for students of history and sociology.


About the Author

American writer, civil rights activist, and scholar William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was the first black man to receive a PhD from Harvard University. A cofounder of the NAACP, he wrote a number of important books, including The Negro (1915) and Black Folk, Then and Now (1899).

September Classic of the Month: The Negro by W.E.B. Du Bois

We are celebrating back to school this September with our Classic of the Month, The Negro by W.E.B. Du Bois.

This is the classic history of the African peoples in Africa and the New World, a repudiation of the absurd belief, widely held in the post-Civil War period, that Africans had no civilization but the one foisted upon them by their slavetrading captors.

Writing for a popular audience in 1915, DuBois, one of America's greatest writers, lays out in easy-to-read, nonacademic prose the striking and illustrious story of the complex history and varied cultures of Africa, from the art and industry of the peoples of the continent to the dramatic impact the slave trade had both in Africa and on her descendents in the Western Hemisphere. 

Boldly proud and beautifully written, this essential work will delight readers of American and African history as well as students of great American literature. 

About the Author

American writer, civil rights activist, and scholar William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was the first black man to receive a PhD from Harvard University. A cofounder of the NAACP, he wrote a number of important books, including The Philadelphia Negro (1899) and Black Folk, Then and Now (1899).

Happy Birthday Harriet Beecher Stowe!

Today, we are celebrating the birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe (born on this day in 1811!) and her best-selling anti-slavery novel that catapulted her into the spotlight. Uncle Tom's Cabin helped influence anti-slavery movement in the northern parts of the United States as well as Britain, while simultaneously sparking anger in the southern parts of America.

It is the best known book about American slavery, and was so incendiary upon its first publication in 1852 that it actually ignited the social flames that led to Civil War less than a decade later. 

What began as a series of sketches for the Cincinnati abolitionist newspaper The National Era scandalized the North, was banned in the South, and ultimately became the bestselling novel of the 19th century. Today, controversy over this melodramatic tale of the dignified slave Tom, the brutal plantation owner Simon Legree, and Stowe's other vividly drawn characters continues, as modern scholars debate the work's newly appreciated feminist undertones and others decry it as the source of enduring stereotypes about African Americans. 

As one of the most influential books in U.S. history, it deserves to be read by all students of literature and of the American story. 

About the Author
American abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was born in Connecticut, daughter of a Congregationalist minister and sister to abolitionist theologian Henry Ward Beecher. She wrote more than two dozen books, both fiction and nonfiction.

We are pleased to offer the this great Classic title in both a practical paperback and attractive hardcover.