Character Building

By: Booker T. Washington

Narrated by: Andrew L. Barnes

In Character Building are 37 addresses that Booker T. Washington gave before students, faculty, and guests at the Tuskegee Institute. These addresses take the form of timeless advice on a number of subjects.

These talks are delivered - in the motivational and uplifting manner one would expect from this American icon - on education, ethics, morals, deportment, spirituality, and the dignity of labor. These short talks contain sage advice fit to focus the mind and heart toward the building up of self, while never relinquishing the personal responsibility we have to one another.

"Let every person get into the habit of planning every day for the comfort and welfare of others, let each one try to live as unselfishly as possible, remembering that the Bible says: 'He that would save his life, must lose it.' And you never saw a person save his life in this higher sense, in the Christ-like sense, unless that person was willing, day by day, to lose himself in the interest of his fellow men. Such persons save their own lives, and in saving them save thousands of other lives."- "What About Our Future", Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington received criticism constantly from his contemporaries for being to conciliatory to whites regarding civil rights; however, the course of his life did reflect a man deeply concerned about the rights of Americans with African descent. Unfortunately, he was not credited for his efforts until shortly after his death in 1915.

Public Domain (P)2015 Legacy Audio Books

Wisdom for Learners

A must read or listen for any person. Life living lessons you can use now.

This book is a pearl!

Abundance of wisdom! Loved it! This is without a doubt, now on my Mt. Rushmore of favorite books.

Still applies today!

I love Booker T! His virtue, wisdom, and attitude are so inspiring! I ordered a paper copy so I can read some chapters to my high school students. This is a great combo of hearing how life was 100 years ago (get a toothbrush) and how the advice still holds today (if you are honest you will win in the end).

Timeless principles for all people

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the principles and values layer out by Booker T. Washington to his students. I tried to imagine where most of these students came from and their backgrounds. It was a different time then but the principles he laid out are as important today, even if the context isn’t quite the same. I will be reading this to my children.

Amazing!!

This book still has a sympathetic relationship with black people of today…2023. Our character is very important and the Bible helps to shape and mode that character of a person.

Amazing

This book is an amazing read, I hope everyone especially African Americans read it. We perish from a lack of knowledge and character too. It’s time to wake up and stop playing victim. And stop spreading hate. This book is amazing

beautiful

simple, but poignant. I wish I could have known BTW. he is my hero and I felt very encouraged by the lessons in this book. I feel inspired to be the best version of myself.

All about the school and race, not character

The narrator is great, but the content is very poor. Most of the content is focused on the college the speeches were written for. Very little of the book is actually focused on “character”. The book is a bait and switch. When the speech is not focused on the school, it’s about race and not about character. It seemed apparent to me the high ratings of the book are given as support for a racial leader rather than as a true critique of the substance of the material - which is greatly lacking and deceptively titled.