Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities

Hope in the Dark is an exploration of optimism in an era of seeming defeat and cultural pessimism. When the worldwide movement against war in Iraq failed to persuade the Bush administration against military action, many activists felt that their actions had been futile, their voices ignored. Hope in the Dark arises out of this moment, arguing millions marching against war did not constitute a failure, but a step toward success.

Throwing out the crippling assumptions with which many activists proceed, Solnit proposes a new vision of how change happens. She counts historic victories that we have forgotten — from the fall of the Berlin war to the Zapatista uprising to Seattle in 1999 to Cancun in September 2003 — tracing the rise of a sophisticated, supple, nonviolent new movement of movements that unites all the diverse and fragmentary issues of the eighties and nineties.

Hope in the Dark is not a manifesto for something that does not yet exist, but an invitation to recognize and to join something that does: The vast, inclusive, inchoate, nameless, wonderful movement that shut down the Seattle WTO, that marched by the tens of millions against war in Iraq, that has learned many lessons from the past and is making its own future, and ours, against empire, against violence, and against the multinationals.

"In this inspired meditation on the very nature of action and the reasons one thing leads to another, Rebecca Solnit, with her customary intellectual penetration, freshness of expression, and high elegance, finds new springs of hope in dark times." Jonathan Schell

"In this extraordinary book, Rebecca Solnit's prose grows poetic wings that enable her to soar to a visionary height. The good news that she brings back is that our struggles — with persistence and courage — are indeed the seeds of kindness." Mike Davis

Throwing out the crippling assumptions with which many activists proceed, award-winning author Solnit proposes a new vision of how change happens.

Critically acclaimed author Solnit sets forth a visionary mandate for hope in a time of apparent political, environmental and cultural darkness.

Rebecca Solnit's previous books include River of Shadows, Hollow City, As Eve Said to the Serpent, Savage Dreams and Wanderlust: A History of Walking. An activist and cultural historian, she writes about place, environment, politics and culture. Rebecca Solnit is the recipient of the Lannan literary award and lives in San Francisco.