The wounded world W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War

W. E. B. Du Bois is known for his mammoth achievements as the first Black PhD from Harvard, editor of the NAACP journal, The Crisis, and author of such iconic works as The Souls of Black Folks. Yet Williams focuses on a monumental project Du Bois did not complete, a proposed history of the Black experience during WWI. It was doomed by academic backstabbing, political interference, and, ultimately, a crisis of faith. A pacifist, Du Bois initially advocated against the war, but at the urging of a patriotic white friend, he exhorted Blacks to "close ranks" with white America to prove their worth. Black servicemen, suffering from horrific racist abuse, saw this as an unforgivable betrayal. Attempting to mend fences, Du Bois traveled to France to document conditions for Black soldiers, amassing a trove of personal letters, diaries, and photos that he never returned. The project became bogged down, and Du Bois found it impossible to gain support. A thoughtful look at how even the greatest minds can founder and a tantalizing glimpse of what we missed.

In this stirring intellectual history, Williams (Torchbearers of Democracy), an African American studies professor at Brandeis University, suggests that the failure of WWI to advance Black Americans' civil rights profoundly affected sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois and fueled his "maturation into an uncompromising peace activist." Du Bois had encouraged Black men to enlist, believing that through "patriotism and military sacrifice, democracy would become a reality for African Americans." These calls, Williams notes, earned Du Bois criticism in the Black press as a "traitor," and he was proven wrong by postwar massacres of Black people across the U.S. during 1919's "Red Summer." Williams discusses how these events disillusioned Du Bois through a close reading of his manuscript The Black Man and the Wounded World, contending this unfinished account of WWI constituted Du Bois's "atonement" for supporting the conflict and that his wrestling with its legacy sharpened his critique of white supremacy and imperialism. Williams convincingly renders Du Bois as a tragic figure whose optimism was dashed by the intransigence of racism, adding poignancy to a story about the limits and fragility of American democracy. At once a moving character study and a deeply researched look at a dispiriting era from the country's past, this is history at its most vivid. (Apr.)

A compelling account of the iconic civil rights leader's effort to make sense of World War I and its meaning for racial equality and democracy. Williams, a professor of African and African American studies at Brandeis and author of Torchbearers of Democracy, details W.E.B. Du Bois' multidecade struggle to research, write, and publish a comprehensive history of African American participation in World War I. Lacking Du Bois' fully realized history, Williams presents readers with the next best thing, incorporating his subject's research, chapter outlines, and excerpts to provide a more accurate and expansive account of the war. The author drives the narrative forward by showing readers how the stakes of the project evolved over time. What began as a narrow history expanded to include documentation of the pervasive, overt, and institutionalized racism within the Army, the violence against Black citizens at home that exploded after the war, and the war's origins in the European colonization of Africa. This was no mere academic exercise for Du Bois, who was haunted by his own role encouraging Black Americans to "close ranks" and set aside "personal grievances" in support of the war effort, anticipating that service would translate into a closer approximation of equality in the U.S. The history would be, in part, a means of ensuring that others did not make the same mistake. The Du Bois that emerges from this illuminating book is fully human. He fails, he dissembles, but he never stops fighting for justice and equality. His insights are as timely today as they were a century ago. In an otherwise thoughtful and nuanced book, the women in Du Bois' life are less fully fleshed. Shirley Graham, Du Bois' second wife and a writer, composer, and activist in her own right, merits a more thorough discussion. Nevertheless, Williams, like Du Bois before him, has done the important work of making sure that history is recorded and remembered. A solid bulwark against efforts to simplify and sanitize history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.