Abolish Rent, Tracy Rosenthal
Abolish Rent, Tracy Rosenthal
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Abolish Rent
How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis

Author: Tracy Rosenthal, Leonardo Vilchis

Narrator: Sharp Radway

Unabridged: 5 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/14/2026


Synopsis

Abolish Rent takes aim at one of the foremost engines of inequality and injustice.Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too damn high. Written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis, complicit politicians, and real estate greed, Abolish Rent dissects our housing system from the perspective of those it immiserates. Through unsparing analysis and striking stories of resistance, it shows us how tenants can, through organizing and collective action, harness our power and win the housing we deserve.

From two cofounders of the largest tenants union in the country, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. Authors Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis take us to trilingual strategy meetings, raucous marches against gentrification, and daring eviction defenses where immigrants put their lives on the line. These are the seeds of the revolutionary movement we need to make our housing, our cities, and the world our home.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Benjamin on November 07, 2024

This is a manifesto, but it’s a good manifesto. It’s also a guide, and it’s a good guide. I stress-read the second half of this book on November 6, 2024 to remind myself that the work continues and was well reminded that the work continues.......more

Goodreads review by naia on October 08, 2025

5 stars isn’t enough. this has to be one of my favorite reads of the year. while the book focuses on tenant militancy and advocacy in LA, it’s an absolute must read for tenants and tenant advocates everywhere. need to get a copy to take notes in because i know i’ll be revisiting it soon.......more

Goodreads review by Priya on November 12, 2024

Wow, what a fantastic book. Incredibly sharp analysis that puts forward a framework that outlines the system of perpetual crisis that capitalism has constructed in the housing market. The argument to abolish rent is extremely effective and clear. It pushes against the hackneyed and reactionary polic......more

Goodreads review by juch on January 14, 2025

So fiery, rly makes housing feel like more than just an “issue,” like what it is - where we make our lives together. So many highlights from the first chapter about how rent is inherently exploitative, based both in theory and data on accumulations over the past few decades that make rent (paraphras......more

Goodreads review by Alex on December 19, 2024

Abolish Rent unapologetically advances its argument: the rent relation itself is an inherently extractive and exploitative mechanism that siphons wealth from bosses to landlords, funneling working people’s wages to sustain an unjust system. Rent, in this analysis, is more than a fee for shelter—it i......more