Reviews tagging 'Death'

Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Y. Davis

5 reviews

waybeyondblue's review

challenging hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Racism, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Excrement

angievansprang's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

This autobiography is incredibly powerful and informative. Angela Davis is an admirable activist specifically for Black liberation and freedom from unjust incarceration of BIPOC in the US. I would definitely recommend this read if you are interested in learning more about the prison-industrial complex!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Hate crime, and Police brutality

Moderate: Murder and Death

notthatcosta's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

In 2023 it's difficult to conceive a court case built around a non-celebrity that was able to cultivate an international solidarity movement, but this book does an excellent job of laying the groundwork to understand the context of where Angela Davis' activism fit within the crossover of the Cold War and the movement for Black liberation.

I also enjoyed the way in which Angela builds in her backstory, the origins of her activism and how travel and academia both sit so centrally in the forcing of her political identity. 

All of this, plus the vivid descriptions of her experiences in the prison system AND the two forwards she added to the original book in both 1988 and 2011 make it feel both singular and relevant to this moment in time.

My one complaint would be the size of some of the sections in relation to others, and my own inability to register the many names she references throughout the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Confinement, Racism, Murder, Hate crime, Death, and Gun violence

kshertz's review

adventurous challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

I mean honestly how do you give Angela Davis’s life anything less than five stars? I did have to constantly remind myself that this was written in the 1970s though. It’s very interesting how much of her life I had never heard about and how much of her history is not out in the world even though it really should be common knowledge in terms of it being very historical and very important. It must’ve been very difficult for her and her team to pick and choose what to include in this book and it already is a really long book. There were parts of the book I really wanted to know more about and they were parts of the book I felt like I didn’t really need but I think everyone probably feels that way about memoirs and autobiographies. Angela herself is just more factual and I am personally a lot more emotional so sometimes I wanted her emotional take on some of the stuff that was happening to her and she was just more wanting to explain how it was affecting the movement and other things and intersectionality and really defending the movement which I completely understand. I truly find it to be a snapshot of a really important part of history and something that everyone should really take the time to read so they can really understand the 1960s and 70s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual harassment, Classism, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Mental illness, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

202claire's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Racism, Police brutality, and Confinement

Moderate: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Violence