ancient cities

egard for cultural advancement, together with his
conviction that most socioeconomically disadvantaged
African Americans lacked his sense of cultural
sophistication, is what has led some observers
to consider him a cultural elitist.
Contributions to Urban Studies
Du Bois’s importance to urban studies may be
seen in his pioneering social-scientific investigation
of the African American urban community in
multi ple ways. First, he gave credence to the idea
that African Americans were capable of surviving
and contributing to American life and culture.
Second, he documented how the city served as a
geographical arena of increasing significance for
assessing how that outcome could be achieved. He
explored and explained how cities bring individuals
and social groups into close and consistent
contact such that opportunities for socioeconomic
advancement, but also for conflict and tension,
might unfold. Further more, he explained how different
interactive styles and the various ways in
which people represented themselves in public
lead to perceptions of social status and significance
and how that shaped the means by which
strangers engaged and maneuvered with each
other in city life. Finally, he introduced how a
range of methodological techniques, including
observational studies, interviews, census data, and
reviews of historical documents, could lead to
Du Bois, W. E. B.
239
different as well as complementary portraits of the
social experiences of city dwellers and the social
flavor of city life.
See also Ghetto; Social Exclusion
Further Readings
Alford Young Jr.
Booth, Charles. [1891] 1897. Life and Labour of the
People of London. Reprint, London: Macmillan.
Du Bois, W. E. B. 1896. The Suppression of the African
Slave Trade to the United States of America,
1683–1870. New York: Longmans, Green.
———. 1897. “The Striving of the Negro People.”
Atlantic Monthly 80(Aug):194–98.
———. 1898. “The Study of Negro Problems.” Annals
of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science 11(Jan):1–23.
———. 1903. “The Laboratory in Sociology at Atlanta
University.” Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 21(May):16–63.
———. 1910. “Reconstruction and Its Benefits.”
American Historical Review 15(July): 781–99.
———. [1899] 1996. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social
Study. Reprint, Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Lewis, David Levering. 1993. W. E. B. Du Bois:
Biography of a Race. New York: Henry Holt.
Residents of Hull House. 1895. Hull House Maps and
Papers. New York: Crowell.