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camigonzari's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve read a fair amount of bibliography on race and gender discrimination and the impact they have on different social spheres. But this book is one of the very few that explains in a thorough way how discrimination and subjugation cannot be fully understood without intersectional dynamics between race, gender and class. It explains how class discrimination is deeply intertwined in society, so much so that it’s considered “normal behavior”. I fully recommend it.
amandakitz's review against another edition
4.0
bell hooks never fails to deliver piercing critical analysis and this book is no different. She weaves her own story and perspective into this series of essays to bring it to life, while each step of the way showing the myriad ways class intersects with racism, sexism, religion, and other influences in our culture. Her style is accessible and academic, clear and scholarly without being aloof, and the book is short enough to be reasonable for the average person.
Some folks expressed disappointment in the lack of citation and I wished she had directly addressed felony status disenfranchisement and the prison industrial complex, but having read her other works, it's clear that her arguments are based in decades of writing and research as one of the foremost thinkers on these subjects and not lacking foundation. This book is not meant to be her academic opus but clearly serves a function as an accessible, unencumbered introduction to class consciousness. I can recommend no better place to begin a journey toward class consciousness in the US.
Some folks expressed disappointment in the lack of citation and I wished she had directly addressed felony status disenfranchisement and the prison industrial complex, but having read her other works, it's clear that her arguments are based in decades of writing and research as one of the foremost thinkers on these subjects and not lacking foundation. This book is not meant to be her academic opus but clearly serves a function as an accessible, unencumbered introduction to class consciousness. I can recommend no better place to begin a journey toward class consciousness in the US.
mrswythe89's review against another edition
3.0
I got really annoyed with this initially because I felt she was making generalisations about modern culture vs. whatever the culture was like when she was young that I didn't think were accurate. And the first part of the book has a lot about what it was like for her and stuff, and you know, fair enough, but I didn't feel she was making arguments so much as making statements, like, this is the way it is. It lacked rigor -- all this stuff about let's return to simplicity and how the young are all me-me-me and blah blah blah. I don't know if this is a function of the fact that this was written in the '90s and it's now 20 years later, so maybe it's just that I'm missing what her writing is responding to.
It was also very very America-focused -- again, fair enough and what I expected, but that might be why I didn't get that much from it initially.
That said, about halfway through it got really interesting and instructive -- from Chapter 8, I'd say. From that through to 14 it's very good -- the chapters on Class and Race, Feminism and Class Power, White Poverty and Class Claims I found particularly useful. And all those chapters are very America-focused, and useful because they're so specific. So there you go!
It was also very very America-focused -- again, fair enough and what I expected, but that might be why I didn't get that much from it initially.
That said, about halfway through it got really interesting and instructive -- from Chapter 8, I'd say. From that through to 14 it's very good -- the chapters on Class and Race, Feminism and Class Power, White Poverty and Class Claims I found particularly useful. And all those chapters are very America-focused, and useful because they're so specific. So there you go!
grylaakvoldin's review against another edition
5.0
This book was instrumental in helping me frame arguments in my dissertation and formulated many of the ways I think about race and ethnicity.
frog_bird's review against another edition
4.0
really good, pretty easy to read book on class and its intersections. its mostly written from personal experience which is pretty easy to understand and make sense of, and she also brings in other good works through synthesis. my one flaw is that i think she puts a little to much faith in the bootstraps (and capitalism as a whole). but ultimate she advocates for communalism, economic justice and finishes with "the workers of the world will once again unite -- standing in economic justice -- for a world where we can all have enough tk live fully and well."
jdizzle's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book for a class, but it introduced me to bell hooks, and overall is a great book. Essentially an autobiography, the book tackles the ways in which class is prevalent in her life growing up, and in her adulthood. Very easy to read and understand I enjoyed reading this.
paigenetting's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.5
creatrixes's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0