First published in 1903, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois&#39; &quot;The Souls of Black Folk&quot; is a seminal work in African American literature and an American classic.&nbsp;<br /><br />In this work Du Bois proposes that &quot;the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.&quot; His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting &quot;double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one&#39;s self through the eyes of others,&quot; have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these enduring concepts, &quot;The Souls of Black Folk&quot; offers an assessment of the progress of the race, the obstacles to that progress, and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.<br /><br />The book contains several essays on race, some of which the magazine <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> had previously published. To develop this work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African American in American society. Outside of its notable relevance in African-American history, &quot;The Souls of Black Folk&quot; also holds an important place in social science as one of the early works in the field of sociology.