Product Description

Almost one-hundred years ago, W.E.B. Du Bois proposed the notion of the "talented tenth," an African American elite that would serve as leaders and models for the larger black community. In this unprecedented collaboration, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cornel West--two of Du Bois's most prominent intellectual descendants--reassess that relationship and its implications for the future of black Americans. If the 1990s are the best of times for the heirs of the Talented Tenth, they are unquestionably worse for the growing black underclass. As they examine the origins of this widening gulf and propose solutions for it, Gates and West combine memoir and biography, social analysis and cultural survey into a book that is incisive and compassionate, cautionary and deeply stirring.

"Today's most public African American intellectual voices...West and Gates have made a valuable contribution."--Julian Bond, Philadelphia Inquirer


"Brilliant...a social, cultural and political blueprint...that attempts to illumine the future path for blacks and American democracy."--New York Daily News


"Henry Louis Gates., Jr., and Cornel West are among the most renowned American intellectuals of our time."--New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125230 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-14
• Released on: 1997-01-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.com Review
In a ground-breaking collaboration, and taking the great W.E.B. Du Bois as their model, two of our foremost African-American intellectual address the dreams, fears, aspirations, and responsibilities of the black community--especially the black elite--on the eve of the twenty-first century.

From Publishers Weekly
Two preeminent black American scholar/ authors, both affiliated with the department of Afro-American studies at Harvard, offer contemporary responses?reflections rather than policy recommendations?to W.E.B. Du Bois's famous challenge to "the Talented Tenth" about service to the black community. Given the ambitiousness of the title, the essays are brief?not much longer than Du Bois's 1903 essay plus his own later self-critique (both published in an appendix here)?and somewhat derivative of the author's previous writings. Gates recalls his passage to the Ivy League 25 years ago and the subsequent American political retrenchment and black middle-class's sense of guilt. The two black men he admired the most at Yale died young and unfulfilled; Gates suggests that his generation may find the quest for identity within their community more daunting than the struggle against white America. West, more directly critiquing Du Bois, argues that the patriarch disdained all but elite culture, and that black "cultural hybridity" (Coltrane, Wright, Morrison, etc.) best engages the challenge of America's "twilight civilization." Thus the Talented Tenth faces an identity crisis: it must decide whether to retreat into cultural rootlessness and hedonism or to strive, as West has argued often, for "radical democracy."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this thought-provoking collaboration, Gates and West explore the challenge of W.E.B. Dubois's famous essay "The Talented Tenth" and consider the future of African American society in light of it. Gates (Colored People, LJ 5/1/94) and West (Race Matters, LJ 3/15/93) are noted African American intellectuals on the faculty of Harvard University's Afro-American Studies program. Envisioning themselves as grandchildren of the "talented tenth," the authors examine the responsibility of the successful and talented black middle and upper classes to uplift the impoverished. In two long essays, Gates and West respond to the challenges placed before them by DuBois. While Gates writes of the sense of guilt and attachment of black intellectuals to the lower class, West challenges the naivete of DuBois's belief in empowerment through education. The text includes DuBois's "The Talented Tenth" and, reprinted for the first time, his 1948 critique of it. Highly recommended.
-?Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Libs., Ind.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

An Honest Book
I've always enjoyed reading and listening to Cornel West, his ideas and observations are honest, regardless of public reaction. Maybe I enjoyed the book because I didn't compare the authors to Du Bois, I took them for who they are, modern day intellectuals. I found even the preface intriguing. There's a powerful observation in the preface that has been sitting heavily on my heart, "Being a leader does not necessarily mean being loved; loving ones community means daring to risk estrangement and alienation from that very community..." This is something we deal with on a daily basis in the black community, we're afraid to do the right thing because we're preoccupied with "keeping it real." Like I said, I appreciate the honesty from both authors and I would suggest this book to anyone interested in the present state of Black America. (But don't solely look to them to nurse the ills that plague our community, just meditate on their observations, the answers come when we put our heads together). Thanks.

A Promethean Study of Race
In two visionary essays on the modern validity of W.E.B. Du Bois' "The Talented Tenth," Professors Gates and West have collaborated on a book that will enlighten anyone interested in race relations in America for years to come. To summarize "The Future of the Race" does not do it justice. Suffice it to say that the scholarship of these "three" learned men elevates the topic of race to higher ground. If you are looking for an easy read, or easy answers to racial issues, this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you dare to examine your own feelings about racism, I can't think of a better way to begin than by reading this book. I disagree with the reviewer from Chapel Hill who described the book as the "patter' of "public intellectuals." It's too easy to dismiss scholarly works as a product of academia, but thanks to intellectual giants like Du Bois, the essays of Gates and West have been made possible. Thank you, professors.

DuBois' Ideas Are Still Revalent in Contemporary America
This book picks apart the ideas of the most influential black scholar of the 20th century, W. E. B. DuBois. Gates and West talk of about the situation in black America and how black Americans should go about changing the poverty stricken race through DuBois' idea of the talented tenth. The Talented Tenth is the idea that the top 10% of a race will help save the rest of the race. West and Gates show how this idea can be a solution to many problems in the black community but they also talk of the problems that occur within the talented tenth. In this landmark publication, West and Gates, the top black modern scholars, come together to create a powerful book that lays out the truth for blacks in America.