W. E. B. Du Bois: International Thought

W. E. B. Du Bois

Nov 2022 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

W. E. B. Du Bois was one of the most significant American political thinkers of the twentieth century. This volume collects 24 of his essays and speeches on international themes, spanning the years 1900-1956. These key texts reveal Du Bois's distinctive approach to the problem of empire and demonstrate his continued importance in our current global context. The volume charts the development of Du Bois's anti-imperial thought, drawing attention to his persistent concern with the relationship between democracy and empire and illustrating the divergent inflections of this theme in the context of a shifting geopolitical terrain; unprecedented political crises, especially during the two world wars; and new opportunities for transnational solidarity. With a critical introduction and extensive editorial notes, W.E.B. Du Bois: International Thought conveys both the coherence and continuity of Du Bois's international thought across his long life and the tremendous range and variety of his preoccupations, intellectual sources, and interlocutors.

About the author

Adom Getachew is Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (2019). Her writing has appeared in Dissent, Nation, London Review of Books, and The New York Times.

Jennifer Pitts is Professor of Political Science and in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Her previous publications include A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Liberal Imperialism in Britain and France (2005) and Boundaries of the International Law and Empire (2018). She is co-editor of The Law of Nations in Global History (2017) and the editor and translator of Alexis de Tocqueville: Writings on Empire and Slavery (2001).