"IN STRUGGLE, ANGELA Y. DAVIS": FIRST EDITION OF WOMEN, RACE & CLASS, BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY DAVIS

DAVIS, Angela. Women, Race & Class. New York: Random House, (1981). Octavo, original half red cloth, original dust jacket. $800.

First edition of Davis' influential and powerful work on the struggle of black women, in her words, "a legacy spelling out standards for a new womanhood," inscribed by her, "In Struggle! Angela Y., Davis 2/16/84."

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. calls Angela Davis "one of the major political theorists of the second half of the 20th century." In Women, Race & Class "her approach, through most of this ambitious volume, is historical. She begins with a powerful account of slavery, reminding us that virtually all black women were, from the beginning, workers—and not 'Mammies' but field hands. Those female slaves worked side by side with men, sabotaged slavery at every turn, Davis says, sometimes even killed their own children to spare them servitude, and, 'passed on to their nominally free female descendants a legacy of hard work, perseverance and self-reliance, a legacy of tenacity, resistance and insistence on sexual equality—in short, a legacy spelling out standards for a new womanhood'… Davis is herself a woman of undeniable courage. She should be heard" (New York Times). "First Edition" on copyright page. Owner signature. Scattered marginalia, underlining mainly to early sections. Trace of small bookplate removal to preliminary blank.

Book generally fresh; light edge-wear, trace of dampstaining to verso of bright dust jacket. Near-fine.