Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

36 reviews

novella42's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

A powerful read, and a perspective shift I had never thought to question before. I'm glad I had the author-read audiobook, spending five hours listening to the incomparable Angela Davis was well worth the time.

"What would it mean to imagine a system in which punishment is not allowed to become the source of corporate profit? How can we imagine a society in which race and class are not primary determinants of punishment? Or one in which punishment itself is no longer the central concern in the making of justice? 

"An abolitionist approach that seeks to answer questions such as these would require us to imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Classism, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Slavery, Death, Deportation, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, and Murder

jessthanthree's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Confinement, and Slavery

Moderate: Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Torture, and Classism

Minor: Murder, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Deportation

kirstenf's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Confinement, Racism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Sexism

Moderate: Slavery and Sexual violence

oworthyfool's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Mental illness, Murder, and Medical content

tigerlark's review

challenging dark informative inspiring medium-paced

4.25

A deeply informative book that changed my mind on several things! I wish Davis had gone a little further in explaining restorative justice and how that looks in a more practical context. But it was still a fascinating read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Confinement

Moderate: Violence, Torture, Police brutality, and Slavery

justinareads's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexual violence, and Torture

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This is a good starting point for studying the links between prisons, capitalism, and racism. It does provide some starting points for alternatives to prisons at the end, but that topic requires further reading. This is much more about the point of the title - that prisons should be obsolete and what is happening behind closed doors. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Racism, Torture, and Slavery

sydneybedell's review against another edition

challenging informative fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Slavery, Sexism, Racism, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Police brutality

wetdirtreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Confinement, Murder, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Classism, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Colonisation, War, Homophobia, and Drug use

michaelion's review against another edition

hopeful informative fast-paced

4.25

I'd like to propose the opposite of Betteridge's law of headlines: Angela Y. Davis' law of book titles, which states that if a book asks the reader a question than answer as probably yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, and Murder

Minor: Deportation, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Rape