Angela Davis is iconic as an international figure but few recognize the educational, political, and ideological contexts that formed the public persona. Excavating layers of networks, activists, and academics across the ideological spectrum, Joy James studies the paradigms and platforms that leveraged Angela Davis into recognition as an activist and radical intellectual. Beginning in Alabama in 1944 with Davis's birthplace and ending in California in 1970 with a surrogate political family, James investigates context in order to better understand the agency and identity of Davis. Her chronology marks key events relevant to Davis, Black communities, and the US, all playing a part in Davis's rise in stature from UC graduate student to the UC Presidential Chair some three decades later.