Women, Race and Class

[cmt2779]

Angela Y. Davis's Women, Race and Class (1983) is one of the best histories of the feminist movement I've ever read. Most such histories have limited their scope to a particular issue (e.g., reproductive rights, suffrage, housework) and to a particular constituency (women of a particular race or class), but Davis masterfully brings together issues of reproductive rights (not just abortion but also forced sterilization), suffrage (for women and for black people), housework, equal pay for equal work, lynching, rape, and even more, all while simultaneously maintaining a breadth of scope that includes women across race and class lines and a depth of focus anchored in detailed research that takes the reader far beyond sweeping statements about a period or a group and into individual lives and relationships in the context of a larger history.

I know of nothing before Davis's book that has this level of detailed research, emotional weight, breadth of scope, and depth of focus. I can only hope to find another book that is comparable as I continue to study feminist theory.