Rattling the Cages, Angela Y. Davis
Rattling the Cages, Angela Y. Davis
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Rattling the Cages
Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners

Author: Angela Y. Davis, Sara Falconer, Josh Davidson, Eric King

Narrator: Krystal Hammond, Mirron Willis, Curtis Michael Holland, Gary Tiedemann

Unabridged: 17 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/19/2024


Synopsis

The official story is that the United States has no political prisoners. The reality is that there are hundreds of people rounded up, placed behind bars, and kept there for inordinately long sentences because of their political beliefs and activities. A project of abolitionist Josh Davidson and political prisoner Eric King, this book is filled with the experience and wisdom of over thirty current and former North American political prisoners. It provides first-hand details of prison life and the political commitments that continue to lead prisoners into direct confrontation with state authorities and institutions. The people Josh Davidson has interviewed include former radicals and Black liberation militants from the sixties and seventies, current antifascists, nonviolent Catholic peace activists, Animal and Earth Liberation Front saboteurs, and more. Their stories are moving, often tragic, yet deeply inspiring.

Collectively, these people have spent hundreds of years behind bars, and their experiences speak directly to the cruelty and immorality of our prison and so-called criminal justice systems. This wide range of voices come together to embody what bell hooks called "a legacy of defiance." It is this legacy—of tirelessly struggling to right today's wrongs and create a better tomorrow—that the prison system tries, yet fails, to extinguish.

About Angela Y. Davis

Angela Y. Davis is a political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine. She is the author of several books, including Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is the subject of the acclaimed documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners and is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Corvus on January 22, 2024

I was really impressed with Rattling the Cages and how well thought out and organized this collection of political prisoner interviews was. It's a hefty volume and includes a lot of people. The book was composed in tandem with some political prisoners which really increases it's ability to cover man......more

Goodreads review by e v on May 22, 2024

any movement that does not support its political prisoners is a sham movement any movement that extends into a revolutionary horizon will face the prison as the border wall of the future even in the darkest places of confinement the struggle continues it’s either over the wall or up against your capto......more

Goodreads review by foxfire on February 01, 2024

Perhaps the most important book you will ever read about revolutionary politics and prison. 400 pages of insightful, charismatic reflection on prison and prison politics from the belly of the beast, by those who lived it. An excellent and timeless contribution to the abolitionist struggle. Required......more

Goodreads review by Scout on December 24, 2023

Collecting the stories of prisoners incarcerated for actions they took as part of struggles ranging from anti-imperialism, to Black liberation, to Earth/animal liberation, to the Catholic workers movement and beyond, this volume showcases conversational insight on the realities of US prison conditio......more

Goodreads review by Abdullah on March 27, 2024

It's a 400-page book so it took me some time to read. That being said, it's almost like little advice columns from multiple prisoners so each excerpt is max of 10-15 pages long so it's an easy read too. NoName's bookclub gave it to me as they highly recommended it. The book inspired me. Someone in t......more