Between the Covers

Hardcover. First edition. 335pp. A bookplate on the front pastedown, tiny tears at the spine ends, and the front hinge slightly cracked, still a tight and attractive, near fine copy of an exceptionally scarce title. Publisher's slip tipped in (about the price of the book). Du Bois’s first book, a commercially published version of his doctoral dissertation (Harvard at the time did not have an incorporated university press) which the scholar had taken great pains to transform from dry historical facts into readable prose. Du Bois went considerably further than any previous researcher to examine real data and document the exact rate of importation of enslaved Africans from 1619 onwards. Most importantly, Du Bois built a strong case for American complicity (both Southern and Northern) in the traffic of slaves well after the 1808 Constitutional ban on the maritime slave traffic. The book remains a model of historic research and writing, and demonstrated that even as a student Du Bois had a unique ability to focus public attention on critical issues by combining history, sociology, and accessible morality. A rare keystone of African-American scholarship and literature.

Item #109423