"Up From Slavery"is one of the most widely read African American autobiographies in the English language. It details how prominent African American leader Booker T. Washington rose from slavery to become one of the nation's most prominent orators and educators at the turn of the 20th century. This reprint of the original 1901 edition is enhanced by 12 related documents and an essay by W. Fitzhugh Brundage that provides students with the necessary background and context to appreciate the role of "Up From Slavery" in American history. It addresses Washington's life and career, criticisms of Washington from within the African American community, the social and political context in which the book was published, reactions to its publication, and the ways in which Washington carefully crafted his autobiography to further his cause among white audiences. Document headnotes, a chronology of Washington's life, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography provide further pedagogical support.

W. Fitzhugh Brundage has taught history at the University of Florida and is now William B. Umstead Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A specialist on the South and modern U.S. history, he is the editor of Where These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity (2000) and Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South (1997); author of A Socialist Utopia in the New South: The Ruskin Colonies of Tennessee and Georgia, 1894-1901 (1996) and Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930 (1993), which won the OAHs Merle Curti Award in 1994. He has received fellowships and grants from the National Humanities Center, the American Philosophical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.