Brent Hayes Edwards and Adam discuss the ‘ur-text of Black political philosophy’, W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Spanning autobiography, history, biography, fiction, music criticism and political science, its fourteen essays set the tone for Black literature, political debate and scholarly production for the course of the 20th century. Souls was an immediate bestseller, the subject of furious debate and a foundational work in the new field of sociology. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Subscribe to Close Readings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Further reading in the LRB: Adam Lively: Fisticuffs https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n05/adam-lively/fisticuffs Kevin Okoth: Resistance from Elsewhere https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n07/kevin-okoth/resistance-from-elsewhere Lewis Nkosi: An UnAmerican in New York https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n16/lewis-nkosi/an-unamerican-in-new-york Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University. Get in touch: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.