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Table of Contents
About The Book
First time on audio! The timeless Pulitzer Prize winner, the first in an epic two-volume biography that set the standard for historical scholarship on this era, narrated by Emmy and Tony Award winner Courtney B. Vance.
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.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois—the premier architect of the civil rights movement in America—was a towering and controversial personality, a fiercely proud individual blessed with the language of the poet and the impatience of the agitator. In the first of his superlative two-volume biography, renowned scholar David Levering Lewis chronicles the first five decades of Du Bois’s long and storied life, detailing in magisterial prose the momentous contributions to our national character that still echo today.
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.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois—the premier architect of the civil rights movement in America—was a towering and controversial personality, a fiercely proud individual blessed with the language of the poet and the impatience of the agitator. In the first of his superlative two-volume biography, renowned scholar David Levering Lewis chronicles the first five decades of Du Bois’s long and storied life, detailing in magisterial prose the momentous contributions to our national character that still echo today.
About The Reader
Courtney B. Vance is an award-winning actor who is a powerful presence from the stage to the screen. From his stunning portrayal of Johnnie Cochran in FX’s The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, to the beloved and pivotal Uncle George in HBO’s critically acclaimed drama horror series Lovecraft Country, to his star turn in NatGeo’s Genius: Aretha as Rev. C.L. Franklin, he has earned two Emmys, a Tony, a Critics Choice Award, a Black Reel TV Award, and multiple NAACP Image Awards, as well as SAG, Golden Globe, and Hollywood Critics Association nominations. He is the recipient of the Bounce Trumpet Awards Excellence in Entertainment Honor, the ABFF Honors Award for Excellence in the Arts, and he earned a Grammy nomination for his narration of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s book, Accessory to War.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (June 17, 2025)
- Runtime: 35 hours and 22 minutes
- ISBN13: 9781668123386
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Raves and Reviews
"When a nonfiction audiobook is described as “monumental,” it can be challenging for listeners. But Courtney B. Vance makes this biography of pioneering Black sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois highly accessible. The work is still long and detailed, but Vance’s pace and tone keep it from seeming tedious. He varies his voice to suit the material, especially in denoting irony or when delivering passages in which the author shows that Du Bois’s writings differ from the facts of his life. Vance tackles the foreign names, places, and concepts of Du Bois’s European period with facility. Du Bois was the intellectual force behind the founding of the NAACP and the modern Civil Rights movement. This audiobook does justice to the man, and Vance’s narration does justice to the book."
– Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award, AudioFile magazine
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
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Book Cover Image (jpg): W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919
Unabridged Audio Download 9781668123386
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