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BOOK REVIEW   MURPHY

before taking up the story of his life and times, from the beginning, with a short interlude, which he titles "Communism."  And this is what he tells us in part:

"I have studied socialism and communism long and carefully in lands where they are practiced and in conversation with their adherents, and with wide reading. I now state my conclusions frankly and clearly: I believe in communism.  

"I mean by communism, a planned way of life in the production of wealth and work designed for building a state whose object is the highest welfare of its people and not merely a profit of a part.  I believe that all men should be employed according to their ability and that wealth and services should be distributed according to need."

He concludes with these words that give us his reason for writing this third and final biography of his life and times: 

"Who now am I to have come to these conclusions? And of what if any significance are my deductions? What has been my life and work and of what meaning to mankind? The final answer to these questions, time and posterity must make. But perhaps it is my duty to contribute whatever enlightenment I can.  This is the excuse for this writing which I call a Soliloquy."  

With Du Bois our guide and mentor, we are now embarked on that awesome and wonderful journey that comprises the rest of this book.  It begins in Great Barrington, Mass., February 23, 1868 and does not end until the death of the great man, a citizen of Ghana, in that country's capital city of Accra, August 27, 1963.  The thousands gathered pause in stunned silence, in Washington, D. C., the capital of the United States, in the midst of their freedom march on Washington for jobs, justice and peace.  

As we end our first reading of this remarkable book, we have a sense of knowing that we shall return to its pages again and again for that nourishment of mind and heart, body and soul, in the struggles that lie ahead.  

For now, we understand that this book is not just the exciting odyssey of an honest man in search of the correct freedom road for his people; it is also the story of how that search transformed him in the process, to show him that the Negro people's struggle in our land embodies within its loins, as do the struggles of all oppressed people, the birthpangs calling for a new society that needs neither war nor exploitation of man by man to fulfill its destiny.

Thus the book becomes the story of the making of a great man. 

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