Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity

238 Pages·2014·0.84 MB·English

by  Kwame Anthony Appiah

Lines of Descent
The W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures

Lines of Descent
W. E. B. Du Bois
and the Emergence of Identity
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, Eng land . 2014
Copyright © 2014 by the President and Fellows of
Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Appiah, Anthony
Lines of descent : W. E. B. Du Bois and the
emergence of identity / Kwame Anthony Appiah.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 72491- 4 (alk. paper)
1. Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt),
1868– 1963. 2. Education—Philosophy. 3. African
Americans— Education. 4. African American
intellectuals. 5. Intellectuals— United States.
6. Identity (Philosophical concept) I. Title.
LB875.D83A67 2014
973.04960730092—dc23
[B] 2013030761
Book design by Dean Bornstein
For my sisters, their spouses, and their children—
a family in diaspora

CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. The Awakening 25
2. Culture and Cosmopolitanism 45
3. The Concept of the Negro 83
4. The Mystic Spell 119
5. The One and the Many 143
Notes 167
Ac know ledgm ents 221
Index 225

His triumph is a triumph not of himself alone,
but of humankind . . .
—W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Superior Race”