In the context of policing and mass incarceration, the notion of living freely is empowering. Therefore, hooks’ work on the importance of living with a “love ethic” is more important than ever.Īccording to hooks, “A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well.” Hooks’ words are similar to the premise of the American Declaration of Independence, which asserts that everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Police brutality, protests gone wrong and the enduring global pandemic all continue to severely affect America. Throughout the last few weeks, turning on any news station promises images of suffering. Within the pages of hooks’ work are lessons and observations that are crucial to society amidst recent political unrest. Although each section contains important reflections on love’s power, those about platonic and familial love are the most profound and enduring. As the most powerful and influential human emotion, it affects all facets of our lives. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better.Each chapter of “All About Love” focuses on a different aspect of love. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.Īs bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness–not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love.

It's all about love bell hooks