Angela Davis: An Autobiography [Paperback]

Angela Y. Davis (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Intl Pub (March 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0717806677
• ISBN-13: 978-0717806676
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't get it twisted - A Powerful Book, January 28, 2004

By 

"jizzoe" (Dorchester, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angela Davis: An Autobiography (Paperback)

First off, for anyone who finds this book dry or boring, understand one thing: this is not pop fiction. You're not going to get neat drawn-out analogies that compares human struggle to a football game or any such nonsense. It's a very intelligent, articulate book that doesn't try to dumb down its message for the uninitiated. But it's also not rocket science. Read it with an open mind and any knowledge you may have of the 60's and 70's and you'll do just fine.

What is often misunderstood is that Ms. Davis did not like the idea of a 'personal' autobiography and was very reluctant to do the book in the first place. She didn't see herself as so special or disconnected in any way from the lives of the millions of struggling people that she and her struggle sought to better. So, she wrote a 'political' autobiography. Every facet of her own life that she chose to share with us is tied in some way to that struggle to bring dignity to the masses of human beings exploited throughout the world. What you walk away with after reading this book is how much she really does care the lives of people. It's not just a bunch of abstract ideas, neat theories, or some trivial intellectual excercise. It really is life and death issues. And she fought for the lives of many as if she would fight for her own.

I think the most important thing you walk away with, and what she wants you to walk away with, is a clear and powerful demonstration of just how much people can bring about real change when we work together collectively in mass and fight for what we believe is right. Time and time again, victory after victory, against what some would consider insurmountable odds, the will of the people were heard. Not because they elected some noble politician who changed it from within. And not because of the kindness of those in power. But because thousands of everyday people like you and me took to the streets and DEMANDED that obvious wrongs be made right. Anyone who takes for granted the 5-day work week, child labor laws, civil rights, humane working conditions, fair and equal compensation, should not take lightly the efforts of people throughout history like Ms. Angela Davis. We benefit from all those things because people got in the street, fought and died for those things. Check your history.

The bottom line is if you are looking for 'light' entertainment reading, you might not find it in this book. But, if you are politicially minded or even curious about the social environment of the 60's, this is a must read. If you care about the plight of black people and opressed people everywhere, get this book. If all you've ever known about revolution, black power struggle, and those damn communists is what you've read about in school or in the papers and you KNOW they're not telling the full story, get this book. Finally, if you know how messed up things are in this country but don't know what to do about it, your life will be changed by this book.

Peace!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is Our History, October 2, 2006

By 

Bicycle Day - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Angela Davis: An Autobiography (Paperback)

The political autobiography was published in 1974 by Random House and reissued in 1988 and 2004.

The book is built around Davis evading police, but finally being captured in New York City and being charged with three capital offenses due to her alleged participation in an escape attempt at the Marin County Hall of Justice.

Davis then weaves her story through her 16 months in jail while awaiting trial, a world-wide campaign calling for her release and her acquittal of all charges in 1972.

It is a treasure of information from one of the most high-profile members of the revolutionary movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Davis was shaped by her travels to Cuba and concluded democracy and socialism are more compatible for freedom of the working class than democracy and capitalism.

The book does not include new material. I would be very interested in an additional chapter on when Davis and others broke from the Communist Party USA during a tumultuous meeting in Cleveland, OH, in the early 1990s.

Only the most rabid revisionist of 1960s-1970s political turmoil would not give her the place she rightfully deserves when discussing that era.

The book remains an unrepentant statement against government-backed repression, and the work by one person to bring these issues to the forefront of the consciousness of all people.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read American History book, October 18, 1999

By 

G. Ames "Freesoup" (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angela Davis: An Autobiography (Paperback)

I have so much respect for Angela Davis. She has devoted her life to the struggle for human dignity. This book shows that she is extremely intelligent, articulate, and has a beautifull soul. After growing up hearing the establishments propoganda about Ms. Davis and the people's movement, it was refreshing to read the truth about the revolution in the words of a true revolutionary.