Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (Paperback)

by Rebecca Solnit (Author) "On January 18, 1915, six months into the First World War, as all Europe was convulsed by killing and dying, Virginia Woolf wrote in her..." (more)
Key Phrases: global justice movement, corporate globalization, radical center, United States, Native Americans, United Nations (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This slim volume, to quote the author's own reflections on the quincentennial of Columbus's discovery of America, is "a zigzag trail of encounters, reactions, and realizations." Solnit, recent winner of an NBCC award for criticism for River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, rambles from place to place and topic to topic in a discursive examination of the current state of leftist protest and activism. Unwilling to accept the bleak, almost apocalyptic worldview of many of her progressive counterparts, Solnit celebrates the hope and optimism that recent episodes reveal. She points to the resurrection of indigenous causes represented by Zapatismo, the WTO protests in Seattle and Cancun and the worldwide protests against the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and other smaller, more marginal protests. Solnit argues persuasively that engaged, thoughtful dissent is far healthier today than many believe. Activists, who operate by nature on the fringes of hierarchies of economy and power, often fail to recognize the power of activity that seems inconsequential. Her goal, in essence, is "to throw out the crippling assumptions with which many activists proceed." While Solnit's goal is admirable and her prose graceful, this book suffers from the same confusion and disorganization she recognizes as necessarily inherent to activism itself. Her examples are diverse yet disjointed; she is overly reliant on the words of others; and she often wanders into spiritual mumbo-jumbo and platitudes. While these tendencies hamper the clarity of her argument, fans of Solnit and progressives may find much to admire here.
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From Booklist
An inspired observer and passionate historian, Solnit, whose River of Shadows (2003) won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is one of the most creative, penetrating, and eloquent cultural critics writing today. In her most personal critique to date, she reflects on the crucial, often underrated accomplishments of grassroots activists. Solnit contemplates such well-studied revolutions as the American civil rights movement and the fall of the Berlin Wall, but more significantly she reflects on such recent events as successful protests against nuclear testing in Nevada, the Zapatista uprising, the anti-corporate globalization movement, the "unprecedented global wave of protest" against the war in Iraq, and such hopeful ecological successes as the return of wolves to Yellowstone and the restoration of the Los Angeles River. Solnit's rousing celebration of people who work tirelessly behind the scenes and courageously on the streets for justice and environmental health harmonizes beautifully with Studs Terkel's Hope Dies Last [BKL S 1 03], and helps readers understand more clearly where we stand as individuals, as Americans, and as citizens of the world. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255773
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255772
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #818,382 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salutory antidote to left pessimism, April 13, 2006

By	S. Sherman "lefteyeonbooks.org" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rebecca Solnit brilliantly recasts the history of the last fifteen years as one of important progress and breakthroughs for the left (or those wishing for some sort of better world--at one point she dismisses the term 'left') by highlighting liberatory moments--the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Zapatista revolt, Seattle, the World Says No to War, even the period of reflection immediately after 9-11. She also does excellent work thinking through the impact of social movements, which, as she says, is often sideways and culturally transformative rather than the direct achievement of a goal. I love her idea that nonviolent civil disobedience is the great invention of the twentieth century, even as the atom bomb is the worst. In later chapters, she falls back on fashionable positions of US activists-the local over the global, concrete alternatives in the present rather than grand schemes for the future, etc.--rather than transcending these dichotomies, which is the spirit much of the book moves in. But I found the history portion revelatory enough that I still give it five stars.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Esperanza, March 4, 2007

By	Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (Paperback)

This book came to my attention via a Sonoma State colleague who uses it for her ecopsychology class. It is not intended to lay out a particular activist approach or set of practices, but to recommend an attitude change from despair or nausea to hope. Elegantly written, it questions the extremes of optimistic denial and existential nausea by offering a collection of behind-the-scenes stories about how people who refused to give up brought a better future into being one brave action at a time. Great book for teachers wanting to encourage activism or social awareness in a time of unprecedented political and environmental crisis.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas, January 3, 2007

By	Mountain bluebird "Sulynn" (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (Paperback)

I bought this book for a discussion group at my church. It really has a lot of good ideas in it and maybe gives me a little hope for the future.