Ideas Matter: The troubled universalism of ‘The Souls of Black Folk’

Fifth podcast in the series on Race and Racism, theme of BoI charity’s event The Academy, held online in late 2020.

In this episode we feature the talk: The troubled universalism of ‘The Souls of Black Folk’.

‘The Souls of Black Folk’ was published in 1903 by W.E.B. Du Bois, the American sociologist, historian, author and campaigner. Today, identity politics and campaigns such as decolonising the curriculum emphasise racial difference rather than common humanity. At a time when universalism has fallen distinctly out of fashion, what can we learn from revisiting this seminal work from Du Bois?

Lecturer: Brendan O’Neill; editor, spiked; writer for The Sun, The Spectator and The Australian; broadcast commentator, Sky News and the BBC; host, The Brendan O’Neill Show podcast.

THE ACADEMY ONLINE II: RACE AND RACISM
The Academy II was a half day online event via zoom that took place in November 2020. 

To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/the-academy-online-ii-race-and-racism

For this lecture on civil rights, we you may wish to read:-

• ‘The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois (1903). Purchase this book at http://amzn.to/3jQG15y
• ‘Black privilege:Why white liberals venerate Ta-Nehisi Coates’ by Brendan O’Neill, spiked http://bit.ly/3daTzay

THE ACADEMY
In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY
The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to realise events such as the Academy Online, none of our staff are furloughed and instead remain working. If you can, then please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST
Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).