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How long does it take to read Becoming Abolitionists?

Derecka Purnell

Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell takes about 5 hours 17 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 5 hours 17 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2021. 288 pages, about 79,200 words.

11 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 8 hours 48 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 5 hours 17 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 18 minutes

The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

"Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings. Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place"--

Subjects: Social sciences, Police administration, Police brutality, Discrimination in law enforcement, Black lives matter movement, Racism

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