In the Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America

363 Pages·2009·1.2 MB·English

by  Robert Gooding-Williams

IN THE SHADOW OF DU BOIS

IN THE SH AD OW OF DU BOIS
AFRO-MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT IN AMERICA
Robert Gooding-Williams
Harvard University Press
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
2009
Copyright©2009bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gooding-Williams,Robert.
IntheshadowofDuBois : Afro-modernpoliticalthoughtinAmerica / Robert
Gooding-Williams.—1sted.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-674-03526-3(cloth:alk.paper)
1.DuBois,W.E.B.(WilliamEdwardBurghardt),1868–1963—Politicalandsocialviews.
2.DuBois,W.E.B.(WilliamEdwardBurghardt),1868–1963—Influence. 3.DuBois,
W.E.B.(WilliamEdwardBurghardt),1868–1963—Criticismandinterpretation. 4.African
Americans—Politicsandgovernment. 5.Politicalscience—UnitedStates. 6.United
States—Politicsandgovernment. 7.UnitedStates—Racerelations. I.Title.
E185.97.D73G664 2009
303.48(cid:2)4092—dc22 2009004877
forTaliaandJulian

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction:TheAuthorityofDuBois 1
1 Politics,Race,andtheHumanSciences 19
2 IntimationsofImmortalityandDoubleConsciousness 66
3 DuBois’sCounter-Sublime 96
4 BetweentheMassesandtheFolk 130
5 Douglass’sDeclarationsofIndependenceandPractices
ofPolitics 162
6 InheritingDuBoisandDouglassafterJimCrow 210
Notes 257
Index 333
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thisbookwouldneverhavebeenconceived,letalonewritten,hadInot
had the good fortune to have David W. Wills as a colleague and friend
during the ten years I taught at Amherst College. Our far-reaching con-
versations, ranging from Du Bois and African American history to
Kierkegaard,modernsocialtheory,andmuchelse,havebeenanendless
and deeply sustaining source of inspiration. In more ways than he will
recognize, my thinking about Du Bois and Douglass reflects the sub-
stanceandspiritofthoseconversations.
IalsooweagreatdebttocolleaguesandstudentsatAmherst,North-
western University, the University of Chicago, and elsewhere who took
thetimetodiscussmyideaswithmeortocommentonsignificantchunks
(oftenmorethanonedraftofthesamechapter)ofmymanuscript:Linda
Alcoff, Danielle Allen, Lawrie Balfour, Lauren Berlant, Martha Biondi,
David Blight, Lawrence Blum, Bernard Boxill, Wendy Brown, Judith
Butler, Nahum Chandler, Anita Chari, Cathy Cohen, Derrick Darby,
Michael Dawson, Thomas Dumm, Barrington Edwards, Elizabeth
Emens, Peter Fenves, Jeffrey Ferguson, George Frederickson, Dilip
Gaonkar, Susannah Gottlieb, Amy Gutmann, Steven Hahn, Michael
Hanchard, Casey Haskins, Sally Haslanger, Christine Hong, Chike
Jeffers, Amy Kaplan, George Kateb, Frank Kirkland, Richard Kraut,
Charles Larmore, Jacob Levy, Paul Loeb, Patchen Markell, Dwight
McBride,ThomasMcCarthy,StephanieMcCurry,KirstieMcClure,John
McCormick, Howard McGary, Charles Mills, Darrell Moore, Aldon
Morris, Donald Morrison, Martha Nussbaum, Lucius Outlaw, Christo-
pher Parker, Dale Peterson, Jennifer Pitts, Karen Sánchez-Eppler, Mark
Sawyer, Tommie Shelby, Lorenzo Simpson, Werner Sollors, Eric
Sundquist, Ronald Sundstrom, Cass Sunstein, Chip Turner, Miguel
ix