Book Description

Booker T. Washington has long held an ambiguous position in the pantheon of black leadership. Lauded by some in his own lifetime as a black George Washington, he was also derided by others as a Benedict Arnold. InThe Education of Booker T. Washington, Michael West offers a major reinterpretation of one of the most complex and controversial figures in American history. West reveals the personal and political dimensions of Washington's journey "up from slavery." He explains why Washington's ideas resonated so strongly in the post-Reconstruction era and considers their often negative influence in the continuing struggle for equality in the United States. West's work also establishes a groundwork for understanding the ideological origins of the civil rights movement and discusses Washington's views on the fate of race and nation in light of those of Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and others.

West argues that Washington's analysis was seen as offering a "solution" to the problem of racial oppression in a nation professing its belief in democracy. That solution was the idea of "race relations." In practice, this theory buttressed segregation by supposing that African Americans could prosper within Jim Crow's walls and without the normal levers by which other Americans pursued their interests. Washington did not, West contends, imagine a way to perfect democracy and an end to the segregationist policies of southern states. Instead, he offered an ideology that would obscure the injustices of segregation and preserve some measure of racial peace.

White Americans, by embracing Washington's views, could comfortably find a way out of the moral and political contradictions raised by the existence of segregation in a supposedly democratic society. This was (and is) Washington's legacy: a form of analysis, at once obvious and concealed, that continues to prohibit the realization of a truly democratic politics.

Book Description
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Booker T. Washington Builder of a Civilization By Emmett J. Scott and Lyman Beecher Stowe - FOREWORD IN THE passing of a character so unique as Dr. Booker T. Washington, many of us, his friends, were anxious that his biography should be written by those best qualified to do so. It is therefore a source of gratification to us of his own race to have an account of Dr. Washington s career set forth in a form at once accurate and readable, such as will inspire unborn generations of Negroes and others to love and appreciate all mankind ofwhatever race or color. It is especially gratifying that this biography has been pre pared by the two people in all America best fitted, by antecedents and by intimate acquaintance and association with Dr. Washington, to undertake it. Mr. Lyman- Beecher Stowe is the grandson of Harriet Beecher Stowe, quot whose quotUncleTom s Cabin had a very direct influence on the abolition of slavery, and Mr. Emmett J. Scott was Dr. Washington s loyal and trusted secretary for eighteen years. ROBERT R. MOTON. Principal Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, August I, 1916. AUTHORS PREFACE THIS is not a biography in the ordinary sense. The exhaustive quotLife and Letters ofBooker T. Washingtonquot re mains still to be compiled. In this more modest work we have simply sought to present and interpret the chief phases of the life of this man who rose from a slave boy to be the leader of ten millions of people and to take his place for all time among America s great men. In fact, we have not even touched upon his childhood, early training, and education, because we felt the story of those early strug gles and privations had been ultimately well told in his own words in quotUp from Slavery.quot This autobiography, however, published as it was fifteen years before his death, brings the story of his life only to the threshold of his greatest achievements. In this book we seek to give the full fruition of his life s work. Each chapter is complete in itself. Each presents a complete, although by no means of his life. exhaustive, picture of some phase We take no small satisfaction in the fact that we were personally selected by Booker Washington himself for this task. He considered us qualified to produce what he wanted namely, a record of his struggles and achieve ments at once accurate and readable, put in permanent form for the information of the public. He believed that such a record could best be furnished by his confidential associate, working in collaboration with a trained and ex perienced writer, sympathetically interested in the welfare of the Negro race. This, then, is whatwe have tried to do and the way we have tried to do it. We completed the first four chapters before Mr. Wash ington s death, but he never read them. In fact, it was our wish, to which he agreed, that he should not read what we had written until its publication in book form. EMMETT J. SCOTT, LYMAN BEECHER STOWE.IT IS not hyperbole to say that Booker T. Washington was a great American. For twenty years before his death he had been the most useful, as well as the most distinguished, member of his race in the world, and one ofthe most useful, as well as one of the most distinguished, of American citizens of any race. Eminent though his services were to the people of his own color, the white men of our Republic were almost as much indebted to him, both directly and indirectly... ... Read more

Book Description
This book, an important companion volume to Louis R. Harlan'sprize-winning biography of Booker T. Washington, makes available for thefirst time in one collection Harlan's essays on the life and career of thecelebrated black leader.

Written over a span of a quarter of a century, they present a remarkablyrich and complex look at Washington, the educator and leading precursor ofthe Civil Rights Movement who rose from slavery to be the dominant force inblack America at the opening of the twentieth century.

Harlan's mastery of biography is revealed in essays printed here exploringthe nature of biographical writing. Readers interested in the art ofhistoriography and biography will find here Harlan's essays detailing hisexperience in crafting his acclaimed biography of Washington, whichreceived two Bancroft Awards, the Beveridge Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Booker T. Washington in Perspective reveals Harlan as historian andbiographer in the essays that were the prelude to his masterwork. ... Read more

Book Description
In Character Building are thirty seven addresses that Booker T. Washington gave before students, faculty, and guests at the Tuskegee Institute. These addresses take the form of timeless advice on a number of subjects. Very motivational and uplifting.Washington was constantly, and often bitterly, criticized by his contemporaries for being too conciliatory to whites and not concerned enough about civil rights. It would not be until after his death that the world would find out that he had indeed worked a great deal for civil rights anonymously behind the scenes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a piece of history
Proves that some kinds of advice are timeless.If you are reading a historical review of the man's life, you should read his own words too.

Still Good for Today
This is a collection of BTW's Sunday sermons to his Tuskegee students. Originally published in 1902, the lessons on thrift, clean living, sharing what you learn with others, the need to read, and the value of education of the heart as well as the head are still valuable a century later. Does not date too badly and with so many young people growing up today without this kind of advice in the home, it's needed just as much today.

Many uninformed people dismiss BTW as an "Uncle Tom," but the publication of more of his writings like this will show that in spite of any faults, he was a very useful person in the upliftment of people. Read it and see. ... Read more

Product Description
By the time he was 9 years old, Booker T. Washington had already witnessed the horrors of slavery, civil war, and racism. At the age of 16, Washingtons lifelong passion for learning was ignited, and when he turned 25, he established the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. The school was open to African-American students who wanted to learn vocational skills as a part of their education. Washington also became a leading spokesman for the African-American community. ... Read more

Product Description
Autobiography of Booker T Washington. Complete and Unabridged ... Read more

Book Description
Describes the life of Booker T. Washington, his accomplishments as an educator and his impact on the fight for equality. ... Read more