| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

W. E. B. Du Bois: American Prophet. By Edward J. Blum. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. viii, 273 pp. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8122-4010-8.)

Edward J. Blum's W. E. B. Du Bois: American Prophet argues that many significant biographies of the groundbreaking African American historian, sociologist, novelist, public intellectual, and activist have eschewed any meaningful interrogation of Du Bois's religious purview or its impact in his research. The absence of references to religion or faith in biographies of Du Bois has led many readers to believe that Du Bois had an avowed disregard for religion. However, according to Blum, nothing could be further from the truth. In this profoundly moving text, the author examines the broad spectrum of Du Bois's writings—including his often overlooked autobiographical and literary work—and reveals numerous ruminations on theology, Christology, church reform, the nature of the soul, racialized constructions of morality, and other dimensions of religiosity throughout his lengthy career. Moreover, in an era that witnessed the likes of Walter Rauschenbusch, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Martin Luther King Jr., Blum emphasizes that "Du Bois was not the only voice of his era speaking on religion, church reform, race, imperialism, war, materialism, and social uplift. But he was certainly the most articulate and the most comprehensive" (p. 131). Given the centrality of religion in Du Bois's scholarship, Blum argues quite brilliantly that Du Bois should rightfully be recognized as a premier scholar of religion.

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