The Academic Training of W. E. B. DuBois

Abstract

When W. E. B. DuBois returned from Berlin in 1894, he brought to his first job, at Wilberforce University in Ohio, an academic training which hardly any, if any, other young American scholar could match. Thirteen years had gone into his apprenticeship as a social scientist. He had studied institutional history with Albert Bushnell Hart at Harvard and economic analysis with Adolph Wagner and Gustav von Schmoller at Berlin. Long uncertain about his career, he had wandered restlessly over the natural sciences and into philosophy before settling down in the social sciences. As a result, his training had remarkable breadth as well: not just the natural sciences and philosophy, but modern languages, mathematics, Greek and Latin.' DuBois's preparation was well started at his high school in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he took the standard classical college preparatory course: four years of Latin and three of Greek; arithmetic, algebra, and geometry in three of the four years; one year of English, a year of ancient and American history; and scattered terms of geography, physiology, and hygiene. In addition, like every other student, he presented compositions, declamations, and recitations, and performed occasional exercises in reading, spelling, and music.2