For three decades, Angela Y. Davis has written on feminism, anti-racism, political philosophy, and liberation theory. Her analyses of culture, gender, capital, and race have profoundly influenced political and social thought, and contemporary struggles.
This volume presents interviews, essays, and excerpts from Davis’s most important works including her memoir. In four parts – Prisons, Repression, and Resistance; Marxism, Anti-Racism, and Feminism; Aesthetics and Culture; and Interviews – Davis examines progressive politics and intellectualism. The extensive introduction by Joy James both provides biographical background and contextualizes the intellectual development of Davis as one of the leading thinkers of our time.
The Angela Y. Davis Reader is essential reading for anyone concerned about social justice, Marxism, and critical race and feminist theory.
"Over the past thirty years Angela Davis has stood as a courageous voice of conscience on matters of race, class, and gender in America. Since her imprisonment in the early 1970s hers has been a voice of principle on behalf of the rights of the incarcerated. Joy James has provided a great service in pulling together and making accessible for the first time in a single volume Angela Davis's seminal writings, revealing at once the considerable range of her insightful intellectual contributions across politics, philosophy, and culture." David Theo Goldberg, Arizona State University
"Although Davis's writing in the Reader is at times flat and workmanlike, the anthology gradually reveals her humanistic vision in wonderful gestures and acute observations" Phillip M. Richards
"This collection refutes that often-heard statement – that it is impossible today to be both a true intellectual and a true activist. Everyone who is concerned with the life if the mind as it illuminates the struggle for social justice will be provoked, even inspired, by these writings." – Barbara T. Christian, Professor of African-American Studies, University of Californa, Berkeley
"Angela Davis has stood as a courageous voice of conscience on matters of race, class, and gender in America. Joy James has provided a great service in pulling together and making accessible for the first time in a single volume Angela Davis’s seminal writings." – David Theo Goldberg, Arizona State University
"Long before ‘race/gender’ became the obligatory injunction it is now, Angela Davis was developing an analytical framework that brought all of these factors into play. For readers who only see Angela Davis as a public icon, welcome to this remarkable book and meet the real Angela Davis: perhaps the leading public intellectual of our era." – Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (1997)
"A truly inspiring collection. Angela Davis offers a cartography of engagement in oppositional social movements and unwavering commitment to justice." – Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Women’s Studies, Hamilton College
