Reviews
"This book will appeal to all people interested in trans politics. Versatile and accessible, it will be helpful to activists and useful for graduate and undergraduate courses in social movements, sociology of gender, public policy, law, criminology, and women/gender/sexuality studies."
—Mobilization
"Unlivable Lives represents a splendid contribution to sociological literature as well as a useful volume for teachers and researchers working in a variety of subfields and disciplines."—Contemporary Sociology
"Laurel Westbrook has written an invaluable analysis of the trans anti-violence movement in the United States. . . . a courageous book."—New Mexico Historical Review
"Unlivable Lives makes an invaluable intervention in how academics and activists discuss trans people and organize against violence."—TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
"Westbrook’s writing is simultaneously accessible and theoretically sophisticated. . . . This work is an important contribution to the study of anti-transgender crime, particularly with the paucity of reliable data on fatal violence against transgender persons."—American Journal of Sociology
"A timely, compelling, and provocative read that balances abstract ideas about identity politics, social movements, and violence with interesting empirical findings about the workings of anti-violence projects focused on the safety, health, and welfare of people who are transgender."—Valerie Jenness, author of
Appealing to Justice: Prisoner Grievances, Rights, and Carceral Logic
"An outstanding study of how activists’ rhetoric shapes our thinking about social problems. Its careful analysis is both convincing and unsettling, and deserves to be widely read."—Joel Best, author of American Nightmares: Social Problems in an Anxious World
"In this grounded-theory analysis, Westbrook critiques the unintended consequences of identity politics, arguing that anti-violence narratives centered on spectacular individual stories of deadly violence create a false sense of homogeneity regarding trans identities and the kinds of vulnerabilities a heterogeneous trans population actually faces. Westbrook's proposal to delink identity politics from anti-violence activism in favor a more structural and intersectional analysis is a welcome contribution to this important topic."—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution
"Unlivable Lives provides a grounded, useful account of the limits of trans anti-violence activism that is insufficiently intersectional and centers law enforcement responses to violence. This thoughtful book will be a resource to scholars and activists alike."—Dean Spade, author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law
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