What if family were not the only place you might hope to feel safe, loved, cared for, and accepted? What if we could do better than the family?

We need to talk about the family. For those who are lucky, families can be filled with love and care, but for many they are sites of pain: from abandonment and neglect, to abuse and violence. Nobody is more likely to harm you than your family. Even in so-called happy families, the unpaid, unacknowledged work that it takes to raise children and care for each other is endless and exhausting. It could be otherwise: In this urgent, incisive polemic, leading feminist critic Sophie Lewis makes the case for family abolition.

Abolish the Family traces the history of family abolitionist demands, beginning with 19th century utopian socialist and sex radical Charles Fourier, the Communist Manifesto and early-20th century Russian family abolitionist Alexandra Kollontai. Turning her attention to the 1960s, Lewis reminds us of the anti-family politics of radical feminists like Shulamith Firestone and the gay liberationists, a tradition she traces to the queer Marxists bringing family abolition to the 21st century. This exhilarating essay looks at historic right wing panic about Black families and the violent imposition of the family on indigenous communities, and insists: Only by thinking beyond the family can we begin to imagine what might come after.

“Sharp, engaging, and bursting with intellectual energy, Abolish the Family is a triumph... It's a joy to read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.” (Helen Hester)

“Sophie Lewis once again shines forth as one of the boldest thinkers of our current moment with this highly anticipated sequel to her groundbreaking Full Surrogacy Now." (Sianne Ngai)

“In her writing, Lewis shows us the kind of feminist care that is within our reach and the intellectual work we must do to actualise it." (Lola Olufemi)