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The Wounded World: W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War Audiobook
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The dramatic story of W. E. B. Du Bois’s reckoning with the betrayal of Black soldiers during World War I―and a new understanding of one of the great twentieth-century writers
When W. E. B. Du Bois, believing in the possibility of full citizenship and democratic change, encouraged African Americans to “close ranks” and support the Allied cause in World War I, he made a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Seeking both intellectual clarity and personal atonement, for more than two decades Du Bois attempted to write the definitive history of Black participation in World War I. His book, however, remained unfinished.
In this book, Chad Williams offers the dramatic account of Du Bois’s failed efforts to complete what would have been one of his most significant works. The surprising story of this unpublished book offers new insight into Du Bois’s struggles to reckon with both the history and the troubling memory of the war, along with the broader meanings of race and democracy for Black people in the twentieth century.
Drawing on a broad range of sources, most notably Du Bois’s unpublished manuscript and research materials, Williams tells a sweeping story of hope, betrayal, disillusionment, and transformation, setting into motion a fresh understanding of the life and mind of arguably the most significant scholar-activist in African American history.
In uncovering what happened to Du Bois’s largely forgotten book, Williams offers a captivating reminder of the importance of World War I, why it mattered to Du Bois, and why it continues to matter today.
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“Until Chad L.Williams’s heroic accumulation of sources, his stunning mastery of them, and his uncanny reckoning with his subject’s ego, W. E. B. Du Bois’s unfinished history of the Great War remained a mystery. We can now write ‘QED’ to Professor Williams’s brilliant The Wounded World.”
— David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
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“By rendering this story in such rich archival detail, Williams’s book is a fitting coda to Du Bois’s unfinished history of Black Americans and the First World War.”
— New York Times -
“Stirring intellectual history…A moving character study and a deeply researched look at a dispiriting era from the country’s past, this is history at its most vivid.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“The Du Bois that emerges from this illuminating book is fully human. He fails, he dissembles, but he never stops fighting for justice and equality…A solid bulwark against efforts to simplify and sanitize history.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“The magisterial W. E. B. Du Bois in flesh and blood…in this extraordinary book.”
— Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People -
“A thoroughly gripping story of failure…A window onto how the tragedies of industrial scale killing, colonialism, and the color line changed the world and a man…A genuine masterpiece.”
— Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk -
“Williams approaches the historical archives anew…to better understand how a crucial moment of international crisis impacted the greatest African American intellectual of the twentieth century.”
— Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, New York Times bestselling author
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About Chad L. Williams
Chad L. Williams is the author of the award-winning book Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era. He is also the coeditor of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. He is the Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Brandeis University. His writings and op-eds have appeared in The Atlantic, Washington Post, Time, and The Conversation.
About Cary Hite
Cary Hite has performed in several theaters across the country as a cast member in the longest-running African American play in history, The Diary of Black Men. He also appeared in Edward II, Fences, Macbeth, Good Boys, Side Effects May Vary, and the indie feature The City Is Mine. He has voiced several projects for AudibleKids, including Souls Look Back in Wonder, From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, and Papa, Do You Love Me?