Book excerpt: The Souls of Black Folk, originally published in 1903, contains a number of groundbreaking essays on race and race relations by scholar and activist W.E.B. DuBois. As an early work in the field of sociology, this book analyzes the interactions between the races and offers a solution for the strife and inequality that had come to characterize those interactions. DuBois believed that education was the route to a better life for all blacks, and his recommendation became the basis for the civil rights movement. Anyone interested in history, race relations, sociology, or the intellectual heritage of the United States will find this an essential read. American writer, civil rights activist, and scholar W.E.B. DUBOIS (1868-1963) was a free-born African American in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was the first black man to receive a PhD from Harvard University and was convinced that education was the means for African Americans to achieve equality. He wrote a number of important books, including The Philadelphia Negro (1899), Black Folk, Then and Now (1899), and The Negro (1915).