Why read Abolish the Family?

Book cover of Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation

Book description

What if we could do better than the family?

We need to talk about the family. For those who are lucky, families can be filled with love and care, but for many they are sites of pain: from abandonment and neglect, to abuse and violence. Nobody is more likely to…

Explore

Topics

Family

Genres

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Abolish the Family as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Marcus McCann

Author

Obviously, it’s a provocative thesis, but it’s one that has a long history in feminist and queer writing.

I was so happy to see this book reclaim the subject for the 21st century. Lewis is a careful thinker, and I appreciated that this book is not a polemic (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

I learned a lot about the history of family abolitionism, and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to think deeply about the privatization of care—friends, colleagues, and yes, even members of my own family.

From Marcus' list on The best new writing on sex and sexual politics.