W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and the City: "The Philadelphia Negro" and Its Legacy

Marc Notes: Revision of essays presented at a two-day seminar held May 1995 at the University of Pennsylvania. Review Quotes: "This book not only reassesses the role of W. E. B. Du Bois as a public intellectual but reappraises the impact of his seminal study on interpretations of the twentieth-century African-American experience... It offers an interdisciplinary critique that will shape scholarship in the twenty-first century."--Joe W. Trotter, Mellon Bank Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon UniversityReview Quotes:"A splendid collection of essays."--"Times Literary Supplement"Review Quotes:"This book not only reassesses the role of W. E. B. Du Bois as a public intellectual but reappraises the impact of his seminal study on interpretations of the twentieth-century African-American experience... It offers an interdisciplinary critique that will shape scholarship in the twenty-first century."--Joe W. Trotter, Carnegie Mellon UniversityReview Quotes:"There is unanimity among these historians and sociologists in ascribing seminal importance to "The Philadelphia Negro"."--David Levering Lewis, "Journal of American History"Biographical Note: Michael B. Katz is Sheldon and Lucy Hackney Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Improving Poor People: The Welfare State, the "Underclass," and Urban Schools as History, among other books. Thomas J. Sugrue is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Publisher Marketing: In 1896, W. E. B. DuBois began research that resulted three years later in the publication of his great classic of urban sociology and history, The Philadelphia Negro. Today, a group of the nation's leading historians and sociologists celebrate the centenary of his project through a reappraisal of his book. Motivated by DuBois's deeply humane vision of racial equality, they draw on ethnography, intellectual and social history, and statistical analysis to situate DuBois and his pioneering study in the intellectual milieu of the late nineteenth century, consider his contributions to the subsequent social scientific and historical studies of the city, and assess the meaning of his work for today. Publisher Marketing: "There is unanimity among these historians and sociologists in ascribing seminal importance to "The Philadelphia Negro.""--David Levering Lewis, "Journal of American History" "A splendid collection of essays."--"Times Literary Supplement" In 1896 W. E. B. Du Bois began research that resulted three years later in the publication of his great classic of urban sociology and history, "The Philadelphia Negro." Today, a group of the nation's leading historians and sociologists celebrate the centenary of his project through a reappraisal of his book. Motivated by Du Bois's deeply humane vision of racial equality, the contributors draw on ethnography, intellectual and social history, and statistical analysis to situate Du Bois and his pioneering study in the intellectual milieu of the late nineteenth century, consider his contributions to the subsequent social scientific and historical studies of the city, and assess the contemporary meaning of his work. Together these essays show that "The Philadelphia Negro" remains as vital and relevant a book at the end of the twentieth century as it was at the start. Contributors include Elijah Anderson, Mia Bay, V. P. Franklin, Robert Gregg, Thomas C. Holt, Tera W. Hunter, Jacqueline Jones, Antonio McDaniel, and Carl Husemoller Nightingale. "This book not only reassesses the role of W. E. B. Du Bois as a public intellectual but reappraises the impact of his seminal study on interpretations of the twentieth-century African-American experience. . . . It offers an interdisciplinary critique that will shape scholarship in the twenty-first century."--Joe W. Trotter, Mellon Bank Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University

Contributor Bio:  Katz, Michael B Michael B. Katz is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of ten books, including "The Underserving Poor "and "In the Shadow of the Poorhouse. "A Fellow of the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies and the Russell Sage Foundation, he lives in Philadelphia and Oquossoc, Maine. Contributor Bio:  Sugrue, Thomas J Thomas J. Sugrue is the David Boies Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of "Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race" (Princeton) and "Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North."