Backtalker
A Memoir
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Publishing:5th May '26
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 5th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
One of most influential thinkers today offers a deeply engaging story of justice and power in America
When Kimberlé Crenshaw was five years old in Ohio during the civil rights era, she was the only girl denied a lead role in her nursery play. Puzzled by her teacher's behaviour, she spoke up - and never stopped. That instinct to question power, to challenge what others accepted as fair, would shape not only her own life but the way we now understand race and gender.
In Backtalker, Crenshaw traces her journey from a spirited girl in Canton, Ohio to one of the most influential legal thinkers today. Through childhood lessons and painful reckonings - a boyfriend’s violence in college, a back door at Harvard Law, the silencing of women in the civil rights movement - Crenshaw learned to see the patterns others missed, refusing to stay behind the lines the world drew for her.
Out of those experiences came two ideas that changed everything: intersectionality, the recognition that race, gender, and class overlap to create unique forms of discrimination; and critical race theory, the argument that racism is structural. Crenshaw’s voice has since echoed through some of the most charged moments in recent history - from Anita Hill’s testimony to the rise of Black Lives Matter - insisting that true justice means seeing the whole picture.
Backtalker is both a memoir of awakening and the origin story of a transformative mind. Crenshaw’s story is ultimately about fairness and power - and the enduring battle for America’s soul.
A beautifully written, compelling and insightful memoir from the extraordinary intellectual, activist and scholar who has shaped critical discourse in America. A moving and powerful read -- Bryan Stevenson
A searing, defiant and deeply inspiring memoir for our times from one of America's greatest architects of justice -- V (formerly Eve Ensler)
It is rare that creators of movements that shake the world use the memoir form to honestly and precisely explore how their will to change was created. Kimberlé Crenshaw has made a fleshy piece of theory, a foundational book for this nation, a moving memoir that will continue to build on the monumental work Crenshaw has already done. We will thankfully be feeling the work of this book for generations -- Kiese Laymon
Kimberlé Crenshaw is one of America’s most original legal thinkers, a pioneering theorist whose scholarship has transformed the way we think about race, gender, and the law. Now in Backtalker, her powerful new memoir, she reminds us of the greatest teacher of all: experience. Here is a compelling account of the making not only of a visionary mind on the front lines of change, but of the ‘we’ that binds us to one another in families, communities, and in the nation as a whole -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Her ideas have shaped generations of thinkers and activists globally. Now, with Backtalker, we come to understand the people and contexts that have given shape to Kimberlé Crenshaw, her values and her sensibilities. This in-depth self-portrait reveals a woman of great depth, courage, and conviction—a truth teller and justice seeker. It is a tale as unique and compelling as its author, a much needed story for our times and beyond -- Farah Jasmine Griffin
My feminist hero is Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw … We live in turbulent times, and I think it’s in part thanks to Dr Crenshaw that more marginalised voices are now speaking up -- Munroe Bergdorf
Kimberlé Crenshaw is a national treasure -- Kerry Washington
Her name and her work have become an introductory point for feminists of all stripes * New Statesman *
The woman who revolutionised feminism * Guardian *
ISBN: 9780241585221
Dimensions: 222mm x 138mm x 40mm
Weight: 750g
400 pages