"THE MOST IMPORTANT PUBLICATION OF BUNCHE'S EARLY YEARS"

BUNCHE, Ralph J. A World View of Race. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936. Octavo, original red- and black printed orange wrappers, staple bound as issued; pp. 98. $1350.

First edition of a signal work by Ralph Bunche, the first African American awarded the Nobel Peace Prize—its very title reveals Bunche was seeking "an entire way of seeing the world"—Bronze Booklet Number Four in the prestigious series edited by Alain Locke, in fragile original wrappers.

Awarded the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize, Ralph Bunche was, for many, the "personification of the United Nations" (New York Times). After earning his Harvard PhD in the 1930s, "in a crucial period for the black population of the U.S., Bunche played both an intellectual and a practical role" (Urquhart, Ralph Bunche, 50-51). World View on Race, one of only nine Bronze Booklets, "must be considered the most important publication of Bunche's early years. It is the longest piece he ever published and represents the clearest nexus of his international and domestic scholarly and political interests" (Holloway in Ralph Johnson Bunche, 32). Its very title indicates Bunche was seeking "an entire way of seeing the world… Two aspects of his analysis have particular relevance for today—his formulation of race as a social construct and his comparative, historical examination of race" (Henry, "World View of Race Revisited," 139). Bunche also highlights the uniqueness of the African American by noting he "is an exceptional case in that he has been torn away from his origins and dumped into an entirely new milieu in which he finds himself a minority group" (49). Ultimately, in this slim volume, Bunche provides "a description of how the world system operates and a set of proposed solutions" (Henry, 144). Bronze Booklet Number Four. "From 1936 to 1942 Associates in Negro Folk Education, funded by the Carnegie Corporation and later by the Rosenwald Fund, issued nine works called the Bronze Booklet series" (Henry, 138). Its general editor was Alain Locke. Not in Blockson.

Text fine, tiny bit of soiling, small corner chip to rear wrapper. A near-fine copy.