A review by erboe501
Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Y. Davis

2.0

I appreciated this book as a historical artifact educating me on the Black Liberation Movement and prison abolition in the 1960s-70s. Especially interesting was her championing of the Communist party, including in the USSR and East Germany, a view she now disavows in her 2021 preface. The West/capitalism was doing a lot wrong, but supporting North Korea seems naïve now. As a compelling autobiography, I found it incredibly dry. Davis states in her prefaces that she'd only write an autobiography if she could map her personal story onto the greater political struggle. But in so doing, you lose most of the warmth and intimacy that makes autobiography engrossing. Davis has earned her righteous tone for her commitment to political activism, but I honestly found her self-righteous tone often insufferable. I started to skim toward the end.

I'm glad I've read this to be more informed about the time period and Davis's life and work. But I wish I'd just been able to listen to it on 2x speed.