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randlepap's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is a great read. Listening to it as an audiobook was not my preference as some of the interviews were a little difficult to follow. Davis draws connections between movements across the world for freedom; exploring through interviews and speeches the foundations of global movements.
rutesousa's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
outcolder's review against another edition
4.0
There are a few things that are strange about this book, like, who is it for, exactly? You have to kind of know a little bit about a lot of different struggles that Davis is connecting here. At the same time, she is repeating many things that if you already know a bit about her life and her work you wouldn't need repeated. So I guess it is for people who are already actively pro-Palestinian or a part of the Black Lives Matter era movement but are kind of new to Angela Davis or are asking, "What does Angela think about all this? What has Angela been up to since Occupy?" The book begins with a series of interviews with a pro-Palestinian activist who lives in Belgium, and I found his questions a bit frustrating in that they weren't very challenging and I thought he was trying to show off a bit too much himself. Davis is really good at deflecting attention away from herself as a person towards the broader movements she teaches about and is active in, so the interviews do stay on message. The rest of the book are a series of speeches Angela Davis made, and I think these could have been edited together more and extended into a longer work organized into proper chapters. It would have been possible in that format to cut out some of the "It's great to be in Chicago/Istanbul/San Francisco" stuff, even though it is kind of fun to read her acknowledging local struggles and connecting them back to the global level. I also would have appreciated some footnotes... like in a speech, you just say stuff, you don't give detailed citations for every assertion, but I think in a book, it might have been helpful to point the reader to sources with more detailed information about, for example G4S's role in running sexual assault centers ... I guess I am asking for one of those "let me google that for you" links, but in the sea of misinformation we are drowning in, it would be helpful to have some sources that Davis and the other people who worked on this book can stand behind. There is a helpful index, though, and every author and activist she name checks is in there. I appreciate that. Even with all my whining, Davis is of course on point through out and it is very hopeful to read something from someone who has been working on these issues for decades and still going, seeing how the areas where it's kicking off now aren't just sudden flashes out of nowhere but part of a real mass movement that is growing and having an impact... to take a longer view, I guess is what I mean. A topical book that takes the longer view makes me feel hopeful, like maybe we are getting somewhere.
ironstar's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
This is the book to read during this season (as of Spring 2024) of college protests against Israel's war of genocide in Gaza.
faith_06's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
ezrasupremacy's review against another edition
no rating to be given.
while i at first struggled a lot with the formatting of this book — probably largely because it is the first collection of this sort that i have read — once i had actually gotten into it it was much easier to flow through than anticipated.
if you’re gonna read this, maybe read one “chapter” (part?) a day, rather than making the mistake i did of trying to read this as one would a “regular” book. i think that would make for a significantly better and more worthwhile reading experience.
a lot of repetition within this, but if you’re opposed to repetition on these kinds of issues i think you have some more thinking to do.
i can’t think of a single point made in this book that i wouldn’t fully agree with. some i had already known about beforehand and therefore had an opinion on that was reflected here, some i had never heard of and got to start thinking about, some i had not even known i had an opinion on until that opinion was challenged.
overall this was a fascinating read that i wish i had read properly from the start, and i truly think everyone should read this, especially people in my generation who like to call themselves activists and anti-racist.
i am ashamed to admit this was the first time i’ve ever read any of davis’ works, but i will make sure to read more of her works as well as some of the works mentioned in this collection in the future.
while i at first struggled a lot with the formatting of this book — probably largely because it is the first collection of this sort that i have read — once i had actually gotten into it it was much easier to flow through than anticipated.
if you’re gonna read this, maybe read one “chapter” (part?) a day, rather than making the mistake i did of trying to read this as one would a “regular” book. i think that would make for a significantly better and more worthwhile reading experience.
a lot of repetition within this, but if you’re opposed to repetition on these kinds of issues i think you have some more thinking to do.
i can’t think of a single point made in this book that i wouldn’t fully agree with. some i had already known about beforehand and therefore had an opinion on that was reflected here, some i had never heard of and got to start thinking about, some i had not even known i had an opinion on until that opinion was challenged.
overall this was a fascinating read that i wish i had read properly from the start, and i truly think everyone should read this, especially people in my generation who like to call themselves activists and anti-racist.
i am ashamed to admit this was the first time i’ve ever read any of davis’ works, but i will make sure to read more of her works as well as some of the works mentioned in this collection in the future.
essenceofthesentence's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0