Many scholars – including myself, I am afraid – had thought that there was little more to say about the Wizard of Tuskegee after the emergence of Louis Harlan's multivolume biography of Booker T. Washington and the even larger collection of his correspondence, also produced under Harlan's supervision in multiple hefty volumes.

As so often happens, the perception that Washington had been exhausted as a topic of inquiry because of Harlan's labors was bound to be mistaken (spectacularly so) for, instead, now that the complex tapestry of his life has been laid out so adroitly, the opportunity has arisen for even more deft explorations of his life and times – an opportunity seized now by the elegant prose stylist that is Professor West.

For this is an unusual book in some ways. It is unlike the typical monograph in that the author does not seek to reinvent Harlan but instead to meditate on Washington and his legacy. In mellifluous words, the author considers the fascinating life of this man, born a slave, who, with the aid of leading captains of industry in the US, somehow became anointed as the “top Negro leader” by the turn of the twentieth century. Though Washington took a decided interest in colonialism in Africa and, at times, funded various campaigns challenging the essence of the hateful Jim Crow system, justifiably he is widely regarded today as a man who sought to accommodate apartheid – in contrast to the man who arose as his antipode: W. E. B. Du Bois, consummate intellectual and founder of the still vibrant National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Strikingly, though of late in black America there has been an attempt to revise Washington's toxic legacy, stressing his notions of building businesses and institutions and relying less upon government programs – an understandable reaction, perhaps, to the rise of conservatism the US – this author does not buy this approach. Instead, he seeks to deconstruct Washington as an emblem of a doctrine of “race relations” that supposedly offered a remedy to the nettlesome problem of racism in a nation purportedly sworn to defend democracy. As the author sees things, Washington and his more noxious notions bolstered the fantastical idea that African Americans could somehow prosper under Jim Crow, despite being deprived of the typical instruments of power that others – particularly those of European descent – possessed.

In some ways, the author updates the original critique of Washington made by Du Bois – and seeks to refute those who choose to rehabilitate the Wizard – by detailing how Washington did not choose to confront head-on the racist policies that obtained but, alternatively, proffered an ideology that obfuscated the pain of oppression in pursuit of the illusory goal of racial peace.

This book is valuable for the insight it brings to an examination of a figure as important as Washington. Perhaps even more valuable, the ultimate legacy of Professor West's handiwork might be as an exemplar of a different way of writing a history book: not just developing an outline and argument, burrowing into the archives, then emerging with nuggets that are then refashioned into a coherent narrative, but instead thinking deeply about a historical subject and teasing out the implications, not least for today, then presenting one's conclusions in words that often sparkle.

Other books may be written in the future about Washington but I seriously doubt if one will be produced that is as insightful as this one.