Angela Davis has spent more than 50 years working for social justice. This summer, society started to catch up.”
—Ava Duvernay, Vanity Fair
“An activist. An author. A scholar. An abolitionist. A legend.”
—Ibram X. Kendi
“Angela Davis: An Autobiography is riveting; as fresh and relevant today as it was almost 50 years ago. The words fire off the page with humour, anger and eloquence.”
—The Guardian
“Before the world knew what intersectionality was, the scholar, writer and activist was living it, arguing not just for Black liberation, but for the rights of women and queer and transgender people as well.”
—New York Times
"Now, nearly fifty years after its first publication in 1974, Davis has brought forth a new edition of Angela Davis: An Autobiography, a landmark text of left-wing Black politics.... The power of An Autobiography lies in Davis’s understanding of both the tremendous forces assembled against her generation’s dreams of a new society and the ideas and actions of her cohort that stalled their forward momentum. She distills how male supremacy undermined the leadership of Black women and introduced authoritarianism and intolerance into more general debates over the politics, strategy, and tactics of the movement. Today, the struggle for Black liberation has taken new form and exists in an altogether different context, but the endless assault on Black life continues to make that pursuit necessary." —Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor, New York Review of Books
“If anyone is qualified to make an assessment on the current situation, it is Angela Davis. She has spent five decades as an intellectual campaigning for racial justice, yet the causes she has pursued – prison reform, defunding the police, restructuring the bail system – had, until recently, been considered too radical for mainstream political thinking.”
—The Guardian
“As an iconic educator, scholar, and leader in the civil rights movement, Angela Davis is an obligatory add to your list of must-read black authors.”
—O Magazine
“Angela Davis: An Autobiography continues to fulfill that goal as the rare book that even almost 50 years later feels timely and relevant. Maybe too relevant, considering how little has changed in the interim.”
—Los Angeles Times
“This new edition of the autobiography is meant to bring Davis and her story to a new generation of readers, who can still identify with her experiences. Still a key work in the areas of prison abolition and feminism, this reissue of a classic autobiography deserves a place of honor in any collection.”
—Library Journal
01/07/2022
Davis (b. 1944; distinguished professor emerita of philosophy, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) is a leading intellectual in the areas of intersectionality, feminism, restorative justice, prison abolition, anti-racism, and civil rights. In this third revised edition of her acclaimed autobiography (first published in 1974), Davis writes a new preface connecting the events of 2021 with her own experiences of the 1950s—70s. From her primary account of organizing for antiracism and equality, readers gain a better understanding of what she and others have been fighting for during the late 20th and early 21st century—and why it is still necessary to work toward ending racism in all its forms today. Especially notable are Davis's powerfully keen observations on U.S. prison life, based on her incarceration as a political prisoner in the early 1970s; the autobiography shows that the American prison industrial system hasn't significantly changed throughout the years, especially as experienced by people of color or those without means. VERDICT This new edition of the autobiography is meant to bring Davis and her story to a new generation of readers, who can still identify with her experiences. It contains the prefaces of the earlier editions, so it is worth replacing older copies of the book. Still a key work in the areas of prison abolition and feminism, this reissue of a classic autobiography deserves a place of honor in any collection.—Maria Bagshaw
