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This class will be held via Zoom unless otherwise specified.
Promised “40 acres and a mule,” Black people were for the most part left empty handed after the abolition of slavery—and, what’s more, made to blame for what generations of U.S. historians saw as the arrogance and overreach of post-Civil War Reconstruction. But in Black Reconstruction in America, W.E.B. Du Bois undertook a radical revision of the history of Reconstruction and of the struggles and fate of Southern Blacks. For Du Bois, Reconstruction was a kind of second American revolution, an attempt to democratize the South to its very foundations, from the ballot box to the farm and the factory. And far from being the passive playthings of carpetbagging Northerners (as traditional historians had it), Black people were active agents of their emancipation, both before, during, and after the Civil War. But why, for Du Bois, was Reconstruction a failure? What follows, theoretically and politically, from treating Reconstruction as a revolution—and its suppression as a counter-revolution? How can we understand Reconstruction, and Du Bois’s classic revision, today?
In this course, we’ll engage in a close reading of most of Black Reconstruction, considering the three fundamental moments around which the book is organized: Civil War and Emancipation, Freedom and Democracy, and Counter-Revolution. To understand each of these moments, we’ll piece together Du Bois’ characterization of the Southern economy and the political forces located in the North and in the South. We’ll examine the centrality he attributes to the Black worker, the complex position of the Southern white worker, the profile of the Southern planter, and the inextricable connections between the agrarian South and the industrial North. We’ll assess the restoration of the ante-bellum status quo amid the fight for universal franchise and the shifting political allegiances that ultimately led to the betrayal of freed Black people. Finally, we’ll consider the struggles of Southern Blacks to build new and transformative institutions in the South, as well as the legacy of such efforts. And throughout, we will ask: What was, after all, Reconstruction, and what lessons can we extract from it today? What did Black people and their allies accomplish, and how should we frame their defeat? Why does putting Black people at the center of the narrative of Reconstruction matter? What are the so-called wages of whiteness, and what role did they play in the years following slavery’s abolition? What is the place of Black Reconstruction in America, originally published in 1935, within Du Bois’s impressive oeuvre? What does it teach us about capitalism and imperialism? What are the connections between Reconstruction’s outcomes and the state of U.S. democracy today? What is “abolition democracy,” and what is its relevance today?
Supplementary readings will include selections from Du Bois’s other writings, primary documents (such as black codes, slave codes, and U.S. constitutional amendments), and scholarly work and interventions by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Eric Foner, Lerone Bennett Jr., Steven Hahn, David Levering Lewis, Aldon Morris, Earl Wright II, David Roediger, Angela Davis, and Mariame Kaba, among others.
This course is available for "remote" learning and will be available to anyone with access to an internet device with a microphone (this includes most models of computers, tablets). Classes will take place with a "Live" instructor at the date/times listed below.
Upon registration, the instructor will send along additional information about how to log-on and participate in the class.
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This class isn't on the schedule at the moment, but save it to your Wish List to find out when it comes back!
The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research was established in 2011 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Its mission is to extend liberal arts education and research far beyond the borders of the traditional university, supporting community education needs and opening up new possibilities for scholarship in the...
Read more about Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
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at The New York Public Library (Tech) -
An introduction to the Internet, including getting connected, using a web browser, and navigating web pages. Learn how to find information online using search engines and subject directories. You will receive an email 2 hours prior to the start of the class with the link to join the virtual class. Skill prerequisites: Computer Basics &n...
An introduction to the Internet, including getting...
Read moreWednesday May 25th, 4pm - 5pm Eastern Time
Journey to the ancient tropics, now located in frigid Greenland, through beautifully depicted paintings based on years of scientific research. A paleobotanist and scientific illustrator will bring this research to life detailing a 200-million-year-old ecosystem, when global temperatures soared, providing insight into environmental responses and the...
Journey to the ancient tropics, now located in frigid...
Read moreWednesday May 25th, 7:15pm - 8:30pm Central Time
at The Jewish Museum -
Join us for an online workshop exploring the work of Marc Chagall, renowned artist and subject of several previous exhibitions at the Jewish Museum. Hear from Bella Meyer, art historian, founder and creative director of fleursBELLA, and granddaughter of the artist, as she shares personal stories about Chagall and discusses how his work inspired her...
Join us for an online workshop exploring the work...
Read moreThursday May 26th, 5pm - 7pm Eastern Time
at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research -
Traditional economic thinking posits a frictionless universe of rational actors, profit-pursuing firms, and the harmonious equilibrium of supply and demand. What’s lost in this sanitized picture of economy is any recognition of the hierarchies that not only shape economic behavior and opportunity, but also, at the root, make capitalist economy exploitative...
Traditional economic thinking posits a frictionless...
Read moreMonday Jun 6th, 6:30pm - 9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research -
Racial Capitalism: Race, Class, and the Black Radical Tradition “Racial capitalism” is a concept that has become central to contemporary radical movements, from Black Lives Matter to the prison abolition movement to movements against state violence and for climate justice. The concept was first developed by Cedric Robinson in his monumental Black...
Racial Capitalism: Race, Class, and the Black Radical...
Read moreMonday Jun 6th, 6:30pm - 9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)at brunchwork -
Explore health tech, operations, and leadership with Tumpus Chief Operating Officer Ryan Fukushima. Speaker Name: Ryan Fukushima Position: Tempus Chief Operating Officer Ryan Fukushima currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Tempus. As Tempus' first employee, Mr. Fukushima shaped Tempus into one of the fastest growing companies in the precision...
Explore health tech, operations, and leadership with...
Read moreWednesday Jun 8th, 12pm - 1pm Eastern Time
at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research -
Existing alongside the so-called formal economy—of employment, production, ownership, and sale within a recognized legal regime—is a shadowy realm of economic activity that takes place “out of sight,” “off the books,” and without ordinary social and political sanction. The informal economy employs legions of street vendors, domestic workers,...
Existing alongside the so-called formal economy—of...
Read moreThursday Jun 9th, 6:30pm - 9:30pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research -
Theodore Seuss Geisel, known to most as Dr. Seuss, is one of the most recognizable author-illustrators of children’s literature of the 20th century. His wobbly towers of preposterous composition, his trademark gibberish, puns and tongue twisters, and the endless list of invented places, peoples, instruments, and alphabets were the accompaniments...
Theodore Seuss Geisel, known to most as Dr. Seuss,...
Read moreThursday Jun 9th, 7pm - 10pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research -
Do we live in an “Age of Narcissism,” or has vanity been with us always? Is narcissism necessarily pathological, or is it a structural feature of human subjectivity in general? Is narcissism a diagnostic concept, a moral problem, or a little bit of both at once? Are we all “narcissists”—or is it just you? In this course, we’ll consider...
Do we live in an “Age of Narcissism,” or has...
Read moreSunday Jun 12th, 2pm - 5pm Eastern Time
(4 sessions)at New York Botanical Garden -
This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. Join ecologist Michael Gaige as he demonstrates how to identify old and ancient trees, both in Eastern woodlands and across the globe. He will discuss the factors that allow them to grow for centuries and illustrate how the advanced age, texture, and structure...
This class will take place online. Registered students...
Read moreWednesday Jun 15th, 6pm - 8pm Eastern Time
at New York Botanical Garden -
This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. Staten Island's Freshkills Park hosts an expansive native grassland habitat atop what was once the world's largest landfill. Discover what researchers are finding as they study the return of wildlife to this human-engineered ecosystem, including several birds...
This class will take place online. Registered students...
Read moreWednesday Jun 22nd, 6pm - 8pm Eastern Time
at New York Botanical Garden -
This class will take place online. Registered students will receive login instructions. Learn how to identify this unique order of insects as they take to the skies in early summer. Study their biology, behavior, habitat associations, and conservation efforts currently underway.
This class will take place online. Registered students...
Read moreMonday Jul 11th, 6pm - 8pm Eastern Time
(3 sessions)at General Assembly -
Understanding how people interact with a product and factors that influence their decision-making process is integral to User Experience Design. This makes psychology a relevant and very helpful background to have for UX Designers. In this class we'll discuss why considering 'how we think' is such an important part of the design process. The class...
Understanding how people interact with a product...
Read moreWednesday Jul 13th, 5am - 7am Eastern Time
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