A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.
“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. Provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society stricken with lovelessness—not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love and achieve spiritual growth.
In this landmark book based on her searching feminist theory, bell hooks explores the question “What is love?” Her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Disputing 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. All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly a new love ethic and community can change hearts and minds for the better.
This landmark book provides radical new ways to think about the art of loving, offering a hopeful, joyous vision of love's transformative power:
- A New Love Ethic: Discover why we must learn to use love as a verb, and how the will to nurture our own and another's spiritual growth can counteract a culture of domination.
- Beyond Romance: Go past the destructive myths of romantic love to find a new path that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for both individuals and a nation.
- The Practice of Self-Love: Learn why self-love is the foundation of all loving practice and how to build the self-esteem necessary to give and receive love in all its forms.
- Healing a Divided Nation: Explore how a commitment to compassion, community, and honesty can heal the divisions that cause suffering in our homes, schools, and workplaces.