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erebus53's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I read this book for a book challenge to read a book 1-5 years older than me and written in the month of my birth. I'll take a sec to say that the prompt is delightfully nebulous enough to not come across as a breach of privacy.
Angela Davis is an icon of the Black Rights movement in USA, and as a Feminist and a Communist she has had a lot to fight against in her life. A book called an autobiography, and published when she was only 28 seems to be very early in her life. I guess that the content of the book also shows how short that life could have been if she was as unlucky as some of the activists she associated with, so if only for that reason I can understand the motivation to tell her story.
This book was edited by Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to be employed as a publisher at Random House. This edition of the audiobook is self narrated by Angela Davis, and also contains an account of the prologues of the subsequent editions of the autobiography, that illustrated some of the development of her political philosophy. I truly appreciate that, in the spirit or Communism, the start of this audiobook is a self-criticism of things that might have been better expressed had the work been written now. Primarily, Dr Davis apologises for her Ableism (calling people mad, and crazy etc.) and her negative reflections about homosexual relationships within prisons.
Parts of this story are stirring and exciting, whereas others are tense, unjust, and stressful. Having been a political activist and a political prisoner, who spent some time as a fugitive, parts of the narrative feel almost like a paranoid spy movie. It's unfortunate that no matter how you spin it, law court shenanigans and procedure are a horrid, and dry affair (even for the stagnant courtroom sweat).
I think in summation this is a valuable insight into the power and control structures of USA in the 1970s, that show how far we have come, and yet how much more needs to be done for an egalitarian world.
Angela Davis is an icon of the Black Rights movement in USA, and as a Feminist and a Communist she has had a lot to fight against in her life. A book called an autobiography, and published when she was only 28 seems to be very early in her life. I guess that the content of the book also shows how short that life could have been if she was as unlucky as some of the activists she associated with, so if only for that reason I can understand the motivation to tell her story.
This book was edited by Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to be employed as a publisher at Random House. This edition of the audiobook is self narrated by Angela Davis, and also contains an account of the prologues of the subsequent editions of the autobiography, that illustrated some of the development of her political philosophy. I truly appreciate that, in the spirit or Communism, the start of this audiobook is a self-criticism of things that might have been better expressed had the work been written now. Primarily, Dr Davis apologises for her Ableism (calling people mad, and crazy etc.) and her negative reflections about homosexual relationships within prisons.
Parts of this story are stirring and exciting, whereas others are tense, unjust, and stressful. Having been a political activist and a political prisoner, who spent some time as a fugitive, parts of the narrative feel almost like a paranoid spy movie. It's unfortunate that no matter how you spin it, law court shenanigans and procedure are a horrid, and dry affair (even for the stagnant courtroom sweat).
I think in summation this is a valuable insight into the power and control structures of USA in the 1970s, that show how far we have come, and yet how much more needs to be done for an egalitarian world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Rape, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail