Her own powerful story to 1972, told with warmth, brilliance, humor and conviction, with a 1988 Introduction by the author.
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reviews
Jun 11, 2011
Erica
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Highly recommend. It's amazing how many things in my life have come up to remind me of this book. That shit is still happening. People of color are getting murdered by police, prisoners are still tortured in jail, and the prison population is WAY more low-income African Americans than other demographics.
Four stars because it does present a simplified perspective. Important as that perspective is, it's not the only one. She goes through great pains to repeat the mantra that she couldn More...
Four stars because it does present a simplified perspective. Important as that perspective is, it's not the only one. She goes through great pains to repeat the mantra that she couldn More...
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Dec 10, 2011
Cosmic
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A few years back, I was 17. I went with a boyfriend to visit his sister in Boulder to go skiing... lo and behold, we got there and I was sick. I was stuck in her house all weekend. Rummaging through her bookshelves, I found this. I read it in one day. I had never heard of Angela, nor much on the Black Panthers aside from what they touch upon in history classes. I was captivated by her life story, by her perseverance, by her fight against the unjust. The book is well-written and reads like fictio
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Dec 16, 2009
Karen
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Read it in high school and wished she had somehow been my next-door neighbor who sensed my true inner spirit and took me under her wing to teach me everything she knew. Oh well.
Mar 06, 2010
Kayf
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I remembered as a child seeing news footage of Angela Yvonne Davis, and wondered what was it she did that was so wrong. As an adult, after I read her story--wonderfully written/edited by Toni Morrison--I chose to write a research paper about Ms. Davis for my college composition class. This book gave me a glimpse of who she was. Moreover, not only was I amazed to find out that I shared most of the same ideals as she, but found it interesting that "some" found her to be a threat. Today,
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Apr 01, 2009
Libby
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Starts off with Davis eluding the law when on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List and moves along swiftly. The middle section goes back to her childhood and is more of a memoir. I found this interesting except when she got into a lot of detail about in-fighting amongst two Black Panther organizations and other progressive groups. As a Southerner, I was surprised to see how much police brutality was perpetrated against Blacks in California. The books ends up with her trial and I liked reading about
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Jul 29, 2009
Jena
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Despite our radical differences in race, age,and sexual preference, Davis' account of her ongoing struggle to juggle theoretical convictions and academic passions with activist ones gave me great insight into my own. A must-read for anyone who loves to read and study but also conceives of activism as something that doesn't begin and end with an online petition.
Dec 16, 2009
Marissa
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A really inspiring account of Angela Davis' philosophical and political evolution into a revolutionary, militant Black Panther. Davis is one of the few activists that has successfully managed to balance her commitment to the overlapping causes of anti-racism, feminism, and communism and hearing the full story of how she blossomed into an American hero can be very thrilling. I remember have a strong urge to give my life to the cause immediately after reading it. One of my favorite parts of the bo
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Dec 29, 2008
i might join a book group that is going to take on Angie Davis' story... i really want to get the historical data on her straight so this will be tackled within the coming months
Feb 23, 2009
Katy
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This is her fascinating story of her life and how she bacame a political radical and activist with the Black Panthers.
Dec 15, 2008
Erok
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another book on my kick of reading about past struggles to learn something about dedication, burnout, and organizing.
i think calling this an autobiography is a misnomer, but she touches on that in the preface. regardless, it's an inspiring account and manifesto of sorts that i'm sure helped lay out a clear, logical, and radical anti-racist, anti-oppressive anti-sexist (and all the other anti-s that you think of) platform in it's day. i know it did for me.
i think calling this an autobiography is a misnomer, but she touches on that in the preface. regardless, it's an inspiring account and manifesto of sorts that i'm sure helped lay out a clear, logical, and radical anti-racist, anti-oppressive anti-sexist (and all the other anti-s that you think of) platform in it's day. i know it did for me.
Nov 25, 2008
Sasha
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This book changed the way I thought about the world and provided deep understanding of our country's recent history.
Apr 19, 2010
Ryan
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I found this to an enlightening book not only on Angela Davis but also on systemic racism that plagues America.
Oct 06, 2007
Bart
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Angela Davis writes a very honest and interesting autobiography of the now first half of her life. The book is beyond autobiography of an individual and provides accounts of social movements of Davis' time. Davis provides powerful critiques on the racist, classist, sexist capitalist state and prison system. I enjoyed most the descriptions of internal dynamics in the movements of which Davis was a part and of other less prominent people - cell block mates, those doing necessary "grunt"
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Feb 22, 2010
Eboni
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Awed at how much I learned from her story...frustrated I hadn't been taught this in history...inspired to incorporate it into my story.
Mar 02, 2008
Mk
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I really wanted to like this book, because I like her more theoretical writings. I really wanted to be able to get past the multiple pages she devotes to talking about how homosexuality is a result of confusion caused by prison conditions, and her resultant unwillingness to recognize any lesbian/butch/trans identities and relationships while in prison. But I couldn't.
Oct 21, 2007
Lacey
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an excellent read, and an inspiriing read. angela was such a strong and brilliant woman. i think the best part of the book is her description of the prison system and her treatment in it. this book is incredible and it gives a really in-depth look at what life was like for black women coming into consciousness and finding a national venue for their voice. incredible!
Jan 29, 2010
Akilah
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Once I stopped reading this book for what I wanted it to be and started reading it for what it is, I enjoyed it a lot more.
Dec 16, 2009
Adam
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Love Angela Davis, Loved this book, my only criticism is that she seems to have blinders on when it comes to communism. Like her description of Cuba being some kind of Socialist paradise where racism has been eliminated. I wonder what her current thinking around all that is?
Aug 22, 2007
Phillip
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Fantastic - having grown up in LA during the Civil Rights movement, I really appreciated this insider's view of what was going on in Watts (and America in general) during this turbulent time. Angela is one of my all-time heroes - and I don't really have heroes...
Dec 16, 2009
Paul
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I read this book while I was working on a research paper on race tensions in California during the late sixties to early eighties. Davis' was one of the most interesting, most intense stories of all that I read. I recommend this to any young potential revolutionary.
Jul 18, 2008
As interesting as an historical document of the American radical political scene in the 1960 and 1970s as a personal account of an activist-scholar, this book should be required reading in every U.S. history class.
Apr 03, 2008
Lucas
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Angela Davis introduced me to the communist manifesto. A powerful justice-seeker and a strong women of color, I continue to feel the electricity of the movement through my memory of these pages.
Jan 19, 2008
Kristin
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Angela Davis wrote this when she was in her 20s, just after her famous trial. I'm fascinated with how she became a radical in ways that were accidental and decidedly not accidental.
Dec 16, 2009
Snarky's
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I read this so long ago that I think my memories about it are probably "better" than the actual text. Still, it's Angela Davis, not you know someone not as cool as her.
Nov 01, 2007
Pam
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Amazing first-hand account of a highly intelligent feminist black-rights activist during the civil rights movement. Loved it.
Jul 21, 2007
mina
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this book was really my first exposure to the black power movement and changed my views on radicalism and black nationalism.
