This monumental biography by David Levering Lewis--eight years in the research and writing--treats the early and middle phases of a long and intense career: a crucial fifty-year period that demonstrates how W.E.B. Du Bois changed forever the way Americans think about themselves.
"An engrossing masterpiece . . . . A dazzling feat of scholarship performed with Lewis's customary grace of style."
Nell Irvin Painter, The Washington Post Book World
"A remarkable study . . . . Mr. Lewis so vividly evokes the environments that shaped Du Bois that one almost participates in the life."
Waldo E. Martin, Jr., The New York Times Book Review
"To say that Lewis's is the finest biography of Du Bois ever written hardly does justice to his performance. Until the publication of this superb new book, Du Bois's life had never received the treatment it deserves."
