Constructing Colonial Peoples: W. E. B. Du Bois, the United Nations, and the Politics of Space and Scale
This article examines W. E. B. Du Bois's transnational political thought during his work with the UN and the NAACP in the 1940s. Focusing on unpublished speeches, essays, and correspondence, it explores how he exploited the conceptual elasticity of terms like “colonial status” and “colonial peo...
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Published in | Modern intellectual history Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 858 - 882 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
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Cambridge, UK
Cambridge University Press
01.09.2023
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Abstract | This article examines W. E. B. Du Bois's transnational political thought during his work with the UN and the NAACP in the 1940s. Focusing on unpublished speeches, essays, and correspondence, it explores how he exploited the conceptual elasticity of terms like “colonial status” and “colonial peoples” in order to build a transnational majority on a global scale. The conceptual capaciousness of the term “colony” and its cognates allowed him to connect disparate forms of domination and dependence across boundaries of race, nation, and empire, thus binding colonial and semicolonial peoples together in a common program of international action. The fruition of these efforts, I argue, was Du Bois's 1948 petition to the UN, An Appeal to the World. Through the appropriation of international legal discourse, he sought to politicize the jurisdictional bifurcation of domestic and international politics embedded in the UN Charter and expand the spatial scale of democracy by placing civil rights struggles in imperial context. |
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AbstractList | This article examines W. E. B. Du Bois's transnational political thought during his work with the UN and the NAACP in the 1940s. Focusing on unpublished speeches, essays, and correspondence, it explores how he exploited the conceptual elasticity of terms like “colonial status” and “colonial peoples” in order to build a transnational majority on a global scale. The conceptual capaciousness of the term “colony” and its cognates allowed him to connect disparate forms of domination and dependence across boundaries of race, nation, and empire, thus binding colonial and semicolonial peoples together in a common program of international action. The fruition of these efforts, I argue, was Du Bois's 1948 petition to the UN,
An Appeal to the World
. Through the appropriation of international legal discourse, he sought to politicize the jurisdictional bifurcation of domestic and international politics embedded in the UN Charter and expand the spatial scale of democracy by placing civil rights struggles in imperial context. This article examines W. E. B. Du Bois's transnational political thought during his work with the UN and the NAACP in the 1940s. Focusing on unpublished speeches, essays, and correspondence, it explores how he exploited the conceptual elasticity of terms like “colonial status” and “colonial peoples” in order to build a transnational majority on a global scale. The conceptual capaciousness of the term “colony” and its cognates allowed him to connect disparate forms of domination and dependence across boundaries of race, nation, and empire, thus binding colonial and semicolonial peoples together in a common program of international action. The fruition of these efforts, I argue, was Du Bois's 1948 petition to the UN, An Appeal to the World. Through the appropriation of international legal discourse, he sought to politicize the jurisdictional bifurcation of domestic and international politics embedded in the UN Charter and expand the spatial scale of democracy by placing civil rights struggles in imperial context. |
Author | Dahl, Adam |
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Copyright | Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. |
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References | S1479244322000464_ref5 S1479244322000464_ref6 S1479244322000464_ref3 Boxill (S1479244322000464_ref10) 1992; 24 S1479244322000464_ref20 S1479244322000464_ref11 S1479244322000464_ref9 S1479244322000464_ref7 S1479244322000464_ref8 Anderson (S1479244322000464_ref1) 2015 S1479244322000464_ref17 S1479244322000464_ref16 S1479244322000464_ref19 S1479244322000464_ref18 S1479244322000464_ref13 S1479244322000464_ref12 S1479244322000464_ref15 S1479244322000464_ref14 Marable (S1479244322000464_ref2) 1986 James (S1479244322000464_ref4) 1948; 8 |
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SubjectTerms | African Americans Appropriation Binding Civil rights Cognates Colonialism Colonies & territories Democracy Dominance Du Bois, W E B (1868-1963) International law Jurisdiction Oppression Petition Political activism Political philosophy Politics Race Racism Sovereignty Transnationalism |
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Title | Constructing Colonial Peoples: W. E. B. Du Bois, the United Nations, and the Politics of Space and Scale |
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