Book Notes: Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists

A group of teenage girls follow an AI instructor through a history lesson about the history for women’s rights in Mikki Kendall’s and A. D’Amico’s comic book Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists. The group of girls is appropriately diverse in race, body shape, religion, and ability. The tone of the book is didactic and lightweight, even as it tries to honor the complexity of the subject matter.

This book is a survey of different movements and prominent figures in history, and doesn’t go into detail about any one subject. Although it takes a US-centric point of view, it makes an effort to touch on historical figures from Asia and Africa. It strives for a nuanced tone, acknowledgidng the setbacks in the movements, and the fact that some figures were not without their controversies. I appreciated that it incorporates the most recent hot issues in contemporary feminism, such as trans rights, disability rights, and even mentions the flaws in so-called “corporate feminism”.

It’s a breezy read about the history of women’s rights, and can serve as a springboard from which to dive more deeply into these movements. The authors clearly intend it as such, ending the book with a call to action.