A powerful study of the women's movement in the U.S. from abolitionist days to the present that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the...
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Apr 03, 2009
Angela
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This might have been better titled "Problems African-Americans Have Faced Since 1860, and Why They Are All The Fault of Middle Class White Women." I dove into Women, Race, and Class hoping for an interesting, fact-filled analysis of how the women's movement has failed poor and minority women. Unfortunately that is not this book. Very little is devoted to the modern women's movement - the first 140 pages basically vilify suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony for spendi
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Apr 14, 2011
Phillip
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re-reading naked lunch made me want to review some social criticism and i love angela, so it was a no-brainer. just finished the second essay, powerful, clear writing. i feel such kinship with her perspectives, that's why i go back to her - 's like a pep talk from my higher self.
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Dec 19, 2008
Ariel
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Women, Race, & Class is highly accessible analysis of race and class in abolition and labor movements. Angela Davis's critique has aged really well except maybe her call for the government to subsidize housework.
Davis's chapters are self-contained and so she ends up repeating information thought the book. Maybe this is just a genre convention of the field of history, but Davis also doesn't give context for quotes or tell us who she's quoting (you have to flip to the endnotes at the More...
Davis's chapters are self-contained and so she ends up repeating information thought the book. Maybe this is just a genre convention of the field of history, but Davis also doesn't give context for quotes or tell us who she's quoting (you have to flip to the endnotes at the More...
Jul 29, 2010
Meredith
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I had to read this for class and I kept putting it off but when I finally started, I ended up reading the whole thing in a day. As a UCSC student, I know that Angela Davis is an important scholar in the feminist movement and this book lives up to her illustrious reputation. I learned a lot which surprised me because, as a senior fem studies major, I thought I'd heard it all. The book offers unique perspectives into the formation of the women's movement and how issues of race and class have been
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Feb 22, 2010
Vern
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This book had the most incredible and insightful research. The detailed information on the plight of the enslaved woman was amazing. Another favorite chapter of mine was, Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights. The previously mentioned chapter sheds light on widespread practice of surgical sterilization. Ms. Davis especially makes a point of how this practice was forced upon the poor. It was also refreshing to read about women who were influential in the Communist and Worker's Rights mo
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Feb 08, 2010
Nikita T.
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A few months ago I started on a quest to educate myself about feminism, especially as it relates to black women. As a result, my GoodReads queue has become filled with books on beauty, books written by authors like Alice Walker and even couple books on hip-hop feminism. I've recently been introduced to authors like Bell Hooks, and I'm constantly learning of others to add to my list. As with my general fascination with learning, the more I read the more I realize I don't know and want to find out
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Oct 23, 2008
Adrienne
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In Women, Race & Class, Davis illustrates the beginnings of the women's rights movement and how it is intertwined with the movement to abolish slavery as well as the class struggle, the beginnings of the Socialist movement in our country. The information detailed is shocking and horrible as she shows racism from every side (on the white side) from slavery up to the 1960s and '70s, and she ranges in topics from rights to vote to forced sterilization.
I thought this book would bother More...
I thought this book would bother More...
Apr 15, 2009
Keely
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Angela Davis drives home the point again and again that as long as anyone is still oppressed we are all oppressed. I really liked her discussion of how closely aligned the women's suffrage movement was with the abolitionist movement and how tensions arose when it became clear that women and black men would not get the vote simultaneously. It reminds me a great deal of the cracks that appeared in the progressive movement when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were both up for the presidency and th
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Sep 17, 2008
Christy
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This is one of the best histories of the feminist movement I've ever read. Most such histories have limited their scope to a particular issue (e.g., reproductive rights, suffrage, housework) and to a particular constituency (women of a particular race or class), but Davis masterfully brings together issues of reproductive rights (not just abortion but also forced sterilization), suffrage (for women and for black people), housework, equal pay for equal work, lynching, rape, and even more, all wh
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May 05, 2007
Irn
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Angela Davis is pretty awesome. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it, and it’s basically a historical examination of the intersection of struggles against sexism, racism, and classism. Or, more accurately, against slavery and lynching, against capitalism, and for woman suffrage and reproductive freedom. I think it’s interesting how Davis, at this point in time at least, certainly saw socialism (rooted in anti-racism and anti-sexism) as the answer to capitalist oppression. I really l
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Nov 12, 2007
tamarack
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angela davis blows me away every time. reading her autobiography sent me searching for more, and after a fruitless search at the local library i bought this book for about a tenner. i don't/can't normally read books with titles like this one, so i really amazed how compelling this book is. each chapter has me furtively scribbling notes so i might pass on some of this wealth of knowledge and insight to my friends. unfortunately i lost those notes(!) so i'll have to condense it like this: women, r
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Jul 05, 2008
Shawn
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Davis traces the history of women suffrage movements and women's roles in the slave abolition movement as well as the tensions between these two movements. She highlights white and black women who were champions of abolition and women's liberation and white women that were for women's rights to vote but held racist views of the day. She traces key women's liberation leaders who were involved in the labor movements and in communism. She has a really interesting chapter on the myth of the black ra
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Nov 30, 2010
Natalie
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Overall, very informative, and Davis is an excellent writer.
I really loved the opening chapter of this book and how Davis points out the contributions of Black women, particularly under slavery, in redefining womanhood.
There were sections of the book that were so intense and troubling, I couldn't read more than a few pages at a time. The section on rape, and the myth of the Black rapist, was such a chapter - incredibly important, and utterly devastating.
Ele More...
I really loved the opening chapter of this book and how Davis points out the contributions of Black women, particularly under slavery, in redefining womanhood.
There were sections of the book that were so intense and troubling, I couldn't read more than a few pages at a time. The section on rape, and the myth of the Black rapist, was such a chapter - incredibly important, and utterly devastating.
Ele More...
Apr 22, 2010
ONTD
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LJ user gingersomething:
I really think this should be required reading for middle class white feminists struggling to comprehend intersectionality. Although, judging from that first goodreads review, maybe some are just beyond reach.
I really think this should be required reading for middle class white feminists struggling to comprehend intersectionality. Although, judging from that first goodreads review, maybe some are just beyond reach.
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Jun 25, 2009
Sally
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I read this in my first women's studies class and was blown away. I need to get a copy so I can read it again now that I'll probably be able to appreciate a lot more the dynamics Davis discusses. This is a must-read for anyone interested in intersectionality, or each issue (gender, race, and class) individually.
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Jan 24, 2012
I read the first chapter in this book for a graduate course (January 2012). I really enjoyed Davis' voice and writing style. I found her discussion of matriarchal slave family units to be very intriguing and would like to read the rest of this book someday.
Apr 12, 2010
This book might be considered as a scripture for the students who majored in African American as well as Women Studies. Ms. Angela Davis has done a thorough and insightful analysis of the history of slavery and the black experience in the States.
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Jul 28, 2011
Sarah
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I adore this book. It is one of those books that blew a whole in the white middle class way I was raised, and it made me a smarter and better person. Her ideas are so powerful that they deserve to be read and reread.
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May 04, 2009
Kimberly
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I admit, I had a hard time getting into this because it was written very textbook-ish. I only read half, which I now regret because it sounded good when we discussed it in group. :(
Apr 09, 2008
Natalie
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The. Best. Book. Ever. Anyone who is interested in feminism, race, class and American history MUST read this book. In one slim volumn originally published in the 70s (I think) the concept of intersecting identities and oppression is made vividly clear. Anyone who is watching the current presidential nominee race and the "race vs gender" meme pushed by the media will appreciate this book for clearly demonstrating that race, class and gender are inseperable and shifting identities that c
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Jun 03, 2008
Amy
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Angela Davis does a great job in explaining the historical and contemporary issues within women's movements that overlook the needs of black and other non-white women. This book could easily read as the precursor to Dorothy Robert's "Killing the Black Body" as there is some overlap in subject matter between the two books: slavery, early Woman's Suffrage Movements (and the racism in them), and most obviously, a section on reproductive rights. Davis also attacks capitalism while she's at
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Apr 12, 2010
Beth
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Well written and a quick read...this book helped set the stage for most of women's history written after the early 1980s.
Jul 31, 2011
Krista
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An in depth and smart look into the world of the up and coming stuggling woman.
Aug 12, 2008
Brook
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i finally got a real overview of that important, depressing history of racism in the feminist movement. I feel like It would be a good pocket reference to have around for any discussions about feminist history. I am curious about other peoples takes on her discussion of housework in the final chapter. This chapter strikes me as the only one that seems dated, but perhaps I'm really just impeding my ability to work for social change by spending so much time cooking and cleaning. Am I misguided to
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Oct 13, 2008
Fran
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an amazing sociohistorical account of slave women and families from slavery to post-slavery; a revisionist history drawing from anecdotes and narratives that challenges dominant discourse. particular attention is also given to the historical conflicts between the (white) women's movement and the black (men's) civil rights movement. frederick douglas and susan b anthony as competitors and where does this place black women? i highly recommend this book, it will transform you.
Oct 30, 2011
Laura
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Angela Davis traces the history of black women in America from slavery until the mid-20th century. An important contribution to the roles black women played (and weren't allowed to play) in the feminist and suffrage movement. I thought her chapters on women in slavery, the myth of the black rapist, and the role of racism in reproductive rights were especially insightful.
