[ Gooding-Williams] makes his case by presenting a clear and convincingaccount of Du Boiss views on democracy, racism and, finally, beauty . The patience and care with which Gooding-Williams explains Du Boiss position will impress, if not persuade, his critics. * The Washington Post * In a magnificent tribute to W. E. B. Du Boiss complexity and originality, Gooding-Williams explores both his dubiousness about the power of reason to defeat white supremacy and his compelling alternative: the power of beauty. This work renders Du Bois among the most important democratic thinkers for our time and establishes Gooding-Williams as Du Boiss finest interpreter. -- Wendy Brown, author of Nihilistic Times: Thinking With Max Weber Democracy and Beauty is a brilliant extended meditation on Darkwater, one of Du Bois's most experimental texts. The book examines the aesthetic philosophy and moral psychology of whiteness which form the core of Du Bois's argument about democracy, its demise and its promise. Democracy and Beauty grapples with Du Bois's eviscerating critique of U.S. democracy, its "vicious habits of mind" and long history of antiblackness. Gooding-Williams navigates the currents of pessimism and optimism, carefully, gracefully, rigorously, and with an eye toward other futures. It is a much-needed contribution to Black Studies, political theory, and philosophy. -- Saidiya Hartman, author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals Democracy and Beauty is simply stunning, a book so original, and so full of both close-knit arguments and provocative illuminations, that there has been nothing like it in recent political philosophy. Gooding-Williams convincingly shows how Du Bois's aesthetics of beauty shapes a unique conception of democratic and ethical progress. A book offering new hope for our own fractured time. -- Martha C. Nussbaum, The University of Chicago Gooding-Williams is our most learned, probing, and discerning interpreter of Du Boiss philosophy. In Democracy and Beauty, he masterfully mines Du Boiss vast corpus to help us understand the morally transformative power of beautiful things in the struggle against racist habits of mind. -- Tommie Shelby, Harvard University This remarkable book cements Gooding-Williamss status as our leading philosophical interpreter of Du Bois. Democracy and Beauty is neither a study of an historical relic nor a tribute to an untouchable oracle. It is a critical and capacious investigation of the still-living ideas bequeathed to us by a flawed historical figure. Ranging widely across disciplines, eras of intellectual history, and scholarly traditions, Gooding-Williams may be Du Bois ideal reader. -- Paul C. Taylor, author of Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics
