Publisher's Synopsis
In 1897 a promising young sociologist, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963), was given a temporary post as Assistant in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in order to conduct in-depth studies on the Negro community in Philadelphia. The product of those studies was the first great empirical book on the Negro in American society.One hundred years after its original publication by the University of Pennsylvania Press, The Philadelphia Negro remains a classic work. It is the first, and perhaps still the finest, example of engaged sociological scholarship—the kind of work that, in contemplating social reality, helps to change it.In his introduction of this centennial edition, Elijah Anderson traces Du Bois's life before his move to Philadelphia. He then examines how the neighborhood studied by Du Bois has changed over the years, and finally he compares the status of blacks today with their status when the book was initially published.
