Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living

Summary

"Phenomenal . . . Offers us possibilities for rescuing the concept of democracy from its fatal entanglement with racial, heteropatriarchal capitalism." —Angela Y. Davis

"A compelling and inspiring book that belongs in our movements and our classrooms." —Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism Without Borders

Become Ungovernable is a provocative new work of political thought setting out to reclaim "freedom", "justice", and "democracy", revolutionary ideas that are all too often warped in the interests of capital and the state. Revealing the mirage of mainstream democratic thought and the false promises of liberal political ideologies, H. L. T. Quan offers an alternative approach: an abolition feminism drawing on a kaleidoscope of refusal praxes, and on a deep engagement with the Black Radical Tradition and queer analytics.

With each chapter anchored by episodes from the long history of resistance and rebellions against tyranny, Quan calls for us to take up a feminist ethic of living rooted in the principles of radical inclusion, mutuality, and friendship as part of the larger toolkit for confronting fascism, white supremacy, and the neoliberal labor regime.