Scan barcode
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