Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
About the book
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Haymarket Books
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My review
This book came very highly recommended to me as a beacon of hope during *gestures vaguely at all the horrors.* One person even told me they’ve gifted it to others something like 15 times. Given that it was written during the Bush administration, when people felt hopeless about their inability to stop the War on Terror, I wasn’t sure that would help me feel less hopeless about 2026. It feels like we’ve managed to make things much, much worse since then.
In some ways, my skepticism was right — especially in the chapters about climate change, because of course we have blown right past so many of the deadlines scientists had given us to turn things around.
And yet. I did find hope here, and in an unexpected place. I was in fourth grade when the World Trade Center fell, so I had no idea how much organizing and protesting had happened in the early 2000s. Learning not only how big the peace movement was — but especially all the good they did manage to accomplish — did indeed bring me some comfort.
Rebecca Solnit never does disappoint.
Content and trigger warnings
Hate crimes
War
Xenophobia/Islamophobia/Racism
