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pink_distro's review
4.0
this was really great. packs a Lot of insights into a very small book. Angela Davis never throws concepts around lightly, so her analysis of amerikan 'democracy' — what it is, how it gets mobilized, its links to empire and capitalism etc — is SO thoughtful and feels tangible. her analysis of torture, how repressive racist/sexual violence operates in the current period, global capitalism, and the political discourse of the time is also very helpful.
P.S. i love interviews and collections of interviews but dear god like half of the interviewer's questions in this book were insufferable ?? he would either be totally grounded in random conservative or mainstream talking points, OR bring up some random progressive academic framework that isnt relevant at ALL and Davis would have to respond to it lol. shes constantly rejecting or hugely complicating his reductive ass questions — which works out fine for the book bc as she does that she explains some very important things. but just wow so odd ....
P.S. i love interviews and collections of interviews but dear god like half of the interviewer's questions in this book were insufferable ?? he would either be totally grounded in random conservative or mainstream talking points, OR bring up some random progressive academic framework that isnt relevant at ALL and Davis would have to respond to it lol. shes constantly rejecting or hugely complicating his reductive ass questions — which works out fine for the book bc as she does that she explains some very important things. but just wow so odd ....
alexanderjamie's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
An insightful look into the relationship between Abu Graib, the US prison system, feminism, racism, and modern politics.
noah_hurts's review
4.0
I picked this up from the library to try and get a little bit of Angela Davis digested before I saw her speak on the 16th and while I did get sidetracked and ended up finishing it the day after I saw Professor Davis speak, I'm still happy I picked this up. Ironically, the book ended up functioning pretty well as an accompaniment to the talk that I saw. Angela Davis has led a really amazing life and she uses that amazing experience to fuel some really interesting talking points in this book. If I found a flaw in it, my only real issue is that (and this is something Davis even addresses at the end of the book) everything is so nebulous. Of course when talking about political revolution and the like, it's hard to find any kind of concrete thing to latch on to sometimes, but she uses some really harsh and concrete language to talk about concepts that she offers no explanation for. Now that said, it's more of a nitpick than anything. I'm reading a political text: I'm not expecting a manual to overthrow the current administration. I did come out of this book (and the speech that she gave) with a new outlook on the prison system and a pretty substantial reading list for further reading on the prison industrial complex.
blackcatkai's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.5
cw: talks about racism, police brutality, colonialism, mentions of homophobia, war, torture, the prison & military industrial complexes.
fascinating on all fronts. this probably shouldn't have been my first angela davis, but it won't be my last.
fascinating on all fronts. this probably shouldn't have been my first angela davis, but it won't be my last.