Sell Back Your Copy
For a $2.23 Gift Card
Trade in
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism [Paperback]

Bell Hooks (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Library Binding, Import --  
Paperback --  
Unknown Binding --  

Book Description

July 1, 1999
In this classic study, cultural critic bell hooks examines how black women, from the seventeenth century to the present day, were and are oppressed by both white men and black men and by white women. Illustrating her analysis with moving personal accounts, Ain't I a Woman is deeply critical of the racism inherent in the thought of many middle-class white feminists who have failed to address issues of race and class. While acknowledging the conflict of loyalty to race or sex is still a dilemma, hooks challenges the view that race and gender are two separate phenomena, insisting that the struggles to end racism and sexism are inextricably intertwined.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Editorial Reviews

Review

A fiery piece of polemic filled with merciless criticism of feminism and black activism alike for their neglect of black women's rights ... provocative and inspiring ... visionary. -- New Statesman One of the twenty most influential women's books of the last twenty years. -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

bell hooks is the author of numerous critically acclaimed and influential books on the politics of race, gender, class, and culture. She is the author of several other books, including Feminist Theory (Pluto Press 2000), Sisters of the Yam, Black Looks, Yearning, Talking Back, and Breaking Bread (with Cornel West). She is currently Professor of English at City College, City University of New York. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 205 pages
  • Publisher: South End Press (July 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 089608129X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0896081291
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bell Hooks is a cultural critic, feminist theorist, and writer. Celebrated as one of our nation's leading public intellectual by The Atlantic Monthly, as well as one of Utne Reader's 100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life, she is a charismatic speaker who divides her time among teaching, writing, and lecturing around the world. Previously a professor in the English departments at Yale University and Oberlin College, hooks is now a Distinguished Professor of English at City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of more than seventeen books, including All About Love: New Visions; Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work; Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life; Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood; Killing Rage: Ending Racism; Art on My Mind: Visual Politics; and Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life. She lives in New York City.

 

Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An effortless, informative and enjoyable read., March 28, 2000
This review is from: Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Paperback)
I read this book 6 years ago on holiday and I couldn't put it down. I tell you this just to let you know that although the subject matter may appear "heavy", hooks style of writing makes the most complicated theories and intellectual of thoughts on Womanism/Feminism easy to understand and entertaining.

This a thought provoking read. For example her theory on the propagation of miscegenation ( the law that banned interracial marriage and our current negative attidudes towards this today) really made me think. Briefly, she theorised that as white men held the key to power the law was brought in not to protect white women from black men but to stop black women marrying white men. If say a black woman married the President she would also have access to power via her direct access and ability to influence the most powerful man in the world.

hooks as a writer is brilliant, she's inspiring, informative and imaginative. Which must be quite difficult given the subject matter she deals with. Start with Aint I a Woman and you'll go onto read her whole library. Enjoy.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Here is where it all began, April 11, 2001
This review is from: Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Paperback)
Those who would dismiss Hook's scholarship and arguments as substandard are truly threatened by the radical observations she makes about the world and black women's relationship to it and in it.

The "Clif Notes" version Hooks has been maligned for by her critics have been practiced openly by white feminists (and predominantly white groups) so I honestly cannot see what the criticism is about unless it is the particular ideas themselves and not the way they are phrased. Hook's work is radical because it forces readers to deal with the less than favorable aspects of American history.

Confronting the real truth about America and the way it has historically treated and maligned women of color (and how they moblized against this) can be a challenging read, but only if the reader comes in with a defensive mind, prepared to discount the work anyway. Individuals with an open mind should love the pages of this now-classic work.

I have always loved this book and it's practical insights on gender roles and a multifaceted approach to reproductive rights. Although Hooks is pro-choice, she reminds us that legalized abortion should be only one aspect of reproductive rights, and freedom from sterilzation abuse and full information on contraceptives is also important. It is a testament to Hooks and other activists that this paradigm has been adopted by the general feminist movement.

True women's liberation involves the liberation of all women from all artificially constructed notions about gender and ethnicity. While we as a nation have historically seen the civil rights movement as primarily for black men, and the feminist movement as being for white women, we have silenced and subjugated the black feminist who has one foot in each of these communities and is going to weave together her own experiences.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and absolutely brilliant, May 15, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Paperback)
White males are of course the real reason that there has been racism within feminism. As bell hooks so courageously describes, white male eurocentric patriarchy has compromised white feminists, who have in turn eclipsed the brave work of so many Black feminists. As a white feminist, I am proud to be a reader of bell hooks. Such superb writing can only make me wonder why white males like Christopher Hitchens and John Leonard are filling up the pages of the Nation, when what we need are fabulously courageous voices like that of bell hooks.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
"In a retrospective examination of the black female slave experience, sexism looms as large as racism as an oppressive force in the lives of black women." Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
white women liberationists, white racial imperialism, black women matriarchs, white male patriarchs, white female racism, black male leaders, white women activists, enslaved black women, matriarchy myth, white women workers, enslaved black men, black male slaves, black women workers, sexist oppression, sex role patterns, black female experience, black male suffrage, black womanhood, black slave women, black female slave, white suffragists, sexist discrimination, black macho, role black women, century black women
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth, Jim Crow, Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Linda Brent, New Orleans, Southern Colonies, Walter Lee, Anna Cooper, June Sochen, Lorraine Hansberry, National Association of Colored Women, Rayford Logan
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:





Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject