Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture (Open Media Series)

Angela Y. Davis is stunningly clear and straightforward in this set of interviews. The book reads much like a conversation, and Davis has a gift for letting the reader cut through the standard scholarly BS to join her in the struggle for interconnected freedom. Her insights are extraordinary. You wouldn't normally analyze the prison system as an evolved form of slavery and Jim Crow. Davis even goes as far as to find strong connections in the sexualized torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib to similar sexualized lynchings of blacks. This book has opened my eyes to many things, including how sexual abuse is legalized in state penal systems, which then feeds into similar abuse in federal prisons and helps create a reciprocal relationship of the two facilitating each other's inhumane practices. She has a remarkable insight for connecting gender and sexual equality, racial equality, and economic equality together to solidify the fact that change must be unified across all levels. The criminal justice and penal institutions must be removed and replaced with something that is actually effective and moral. "Abolition democracy" is the name of this battle.I enjoy how Davis's insights are reflected in another popular book recently released, "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander. Both books are must-reads, complete eye-openers. My suggestion: study both, and look at the world in new ways.

This book draws parallels to the prison industrial complex and military industrial complex I nvr thought of. I came in wanting to learn more about prison abolition. Now I want that and military abolition.

I teach Restorative Justice at the university level, and our students need to understand how un-democratic and perniciously vile the prison system has been to persons of color and therefore think seriously about flipping our current prison system on its ear to revamp or eliminate. Angela Davis is brilliant in her historical overview and assessment of the past and current criminal justice system, and her suggestions towards a way forward should be instituted yesterday! A wholly superior work.

Insightful and wide ranging analysis of racism and what we need to do address the power structures that perpetuate this violence in the world.

This interview should constitute required reading for anyone interested, at least somewhat, in human rights. She is sharp, thoughtful and experienced. Worth the short time it takes to read.

Interesting. Angela's a radical. I agree with some of her ideas. Read at your peril. If you agree it will be hard to figure out what to do next without getting into trouble.

This book will change the way you see government. Angela Davis is brilliant.

Classic Angela Davis pours out her heart and soul to shed light on an issue to raisepublic awareness in regards to the US prison system.

Required reading for the better understanding of the interconnectedness of the US imprisonment of people for economic growth and political control.

Brilliant