Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Board:
Rebecca Adams,
 UNC-Greensboro

Bob Davis,
 North Carolina
 Agricultural and
 Technical State
 University

Catherine Harris,
 Wake Forest
 University

Ella Keller,
 Fayetteville
 State University

Ken Land,
 Duke University

Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University

Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Editorial Assistants

John W.M. Russell,
 Technical
 Consultant

Austin W. Ashe,
 Duke University

® 

Volume 8, Number 1

Spring/Summer 2010

Book Review
of
W.E.B. Du Bois and the Sociological Imagination: A 
Reader, 1897-1914

Reviewed by Robert Davis
North Carolina A&T State University

Wortham, Robert, A., Editor (2009). W.E.B. Du Bois and the Sociological Imagination: A Reader, 1897-1914. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press

    As A graduate student in the Sociology Department at Atlanta University in the late 1960's, I was introduced to Du Bois' Atlanta University Conference Publications and his pioneering works in the discipline.  We were taught that Du Bois was determined to put science into sociology through a study of the conditions and problems of his own people. Our professors instilled in us that Du Bois believed that racial prejudice and discrimination were responsible for the social condition of African Americans and that sociology students needed to learn how to "practice" being a sociologist rather than simply learn "about" sociology. We learned that Du Bois' methodology included "historical investigation, statistical measurement, anthropological measurement and sociological interpretation." In terms of legacy, Du Bois in Dust of Dawn: an Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept (1940) states that, "between 1896 and 1920 there was no study of the race problem in America made which did not depend in some degree upon the investigations made at Atlanta University," which was at the time the only institution in the world conducting and publishing the results of a systematic study of African American quality of life. 

    As noted by Robert Wortham in his volume, Du Bois' legacy included emphasis on an empirical, inductive approach to research methods (statistics, data collection, and data analysis), methodological triangulation (the use of historical sources, census reports and survey data and participant observation) and employing an interdisciplinary perspective (History, Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology) to study African American quality of life.

    This insightful collection of essays and excerpts describes and analyzes African American quality of life and racial etiquette that pervaded the political, economic and social arrangements of the day. Du Bois early on believed that racial prejudice and discrimination were functions of ignorance and that once presented with verifiable facts a basis for social change could be provided. This was the purpose of the Atlanta University Conference Publications, but due to the persistence of racial prejudice and discrimination he concluded that there was no demand for the sort of scientific work he was doing. Du Bois ultimately reached the conclusion that inequality was based less on the lack of knowledge and more on the power of one group to dominate another. 

    Although Du Bois was loath to distinguish between theory and practice, this position is clearly associated with classical conflict theory which maintains that societies are stratified on the basis of who owns or control the "means of production" (Marx) and the notion that inequality is grounded in a group's access to property, power and prestige (Weber). Another key theoretical idea found in Du Bois's writings in this volume is double -consciousness, a sense of "two-ness," or a feeling among African Americans of seeing and measuring themselves through others' eyes. This idea is similar to Charles Horton Cooley's looking glass theory of self.  Finally, Wortham also notes a similarity between Du Bois' reflections on crime and stratification and Robert Merton's structure-strain theory of deviance.

    Although Du Bois taught in the Atlanta University Sociology Department and directed the "Atlanta Sociological Laboratory" for 13 years, he usually is not thought of as a sociologist by many in academia. Rather, he is better known as an intellectual and for his founding and leadership roles in the National Association of Colored People (NAACP). The thirty entries in Wortham's Reader, which are drawn from journal and trade articles, Department of Labor studies, the annual Atlanta University Conference Publications, and two of Du Bois' major books, The Philadelphia Negro (1899) and The Souls of Black Folks (1903), demonstrate that there is powerful sociology in Du Bois' writings. They will also according to Wortham, "make his early sociological studies more accessible to existing scholars and a new generation of sociologists and students"."

    Wortham organized the readings to address four major themes: (1) the study of society and social problems; (2) social structure and social processes; (3) dimensions of inequality; and (4) social dynamics. A major strength of this work is that before moving to the collection of essays and excerpts, a brief "primer" on Du Bois' early sociological influences and interest in sociology is presented in the Introduction to the volume (Part I). In Part II, the first set of articles addresses sociological theory and methods. Eight readings are included in Part III. Two readings are provided for each of the following topics: Culture and socialization, religion and social structure, stratification, and deviance and crime. The readings in Part IV address the quality of African American life with respect to family, education, work, income and poverty in urban and rural settings, health, and race relations. The last section of the volume includes two readings on each of the following topics: population, urban and rural life, and social change.

    If this book is criticized by social scientists, it will be due to the paucity of information on the factors and players responsible for Du Bois departure from Atlanta University and his battles with what he termed the "Tuskegee Machine." Also, little information is presented on Du Bois' Marxist view on power built on the economic control of labor, income and ideas and his concern with imperialism and the domination of Europe over Africa and Asia.

    Overall this collection contains some important essays that do an excellent job of lifting Du Bois' "sociological veil."  The readings document Du Bois' contributions to the scientific study of society between 1897 and 1914 making a convincing case for the inclusion of Du Bois as a founding father in the development of the discipline of sociology.
 
 
 

©2010 by the North Carolina Sociological Association