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Honorable Mention, 2026 Hugh L. Silverman Book Prize in Philosophy and Literature, Association for Philosophy and Literature
What is beauty, and what is its political function? In what ways might it help undermine white supremacy and cultivate a more democratic political culture? Democracy and Beauty shines a light on W. E. B. Du Bois’s attempts to answer these questions during the decade surrounding the First World War and, in so doing, offers a groundbreaking account of the philosopher’s aesthetics.
Robert Gooding-Williams reconstructs Du Bois’s defense of the political potential of beauty to challenge oppressive systems and foster an inclusive democracy. White supremacy is a powerful force that defies rational revision, Du Bois argued, because it is rooted in the entrenched routines of its adherents. Beauty, however, has a distinctive role to play in the struggle against white supremacy. It can strengthen resolve and ward off despair by showing the oppressed that they can alter their social world, and it can unsettle and even transform the pernicious habits that perpetuate white supremacy. Gooding-Williams also explores Du Bois’s account of the interplay among white supremacy, Christianity, capitalism, and imperialism as well as key tensions in his work. A rich engagement with Du Bois’s philosophy of beauty, this book demonstrates the relevance of his social thought and aesthetics to present-day arguments about Black pessimism, Black optimism, and the aesthetic turn in Black studies.
Gooding-Williams offers an extraordinary analysis of Du Bois’s philosophy, as well as an opportunity to reintroduce Du Bois to the classroom in a way that promotes discussion and allows students to reflect on their positions regarding empowerment and pessimism. This is a must-read text for students who wish to analyze the past, evaluate the current situation in the US, and dialogue regarding potential futures.
In a magnificent tribute to W. E. B. Du Bois’s 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 Bois’s 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 Bois’s philosophy. In Democracy and Beauty, he masterfully mines Du Bois’s 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-Williams’s 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
1. Darkwater, Democracy, and Aesthetic Education
2. Moral Psychology of White Supremacy
3. Democratic Despotism
4. Beauty
5. Propaganda
6. Pessimism
7. Du Bois’s Pluralism: Unfinished Lives, Unfinished Societies
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index