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arielamandah's review against another edition
4.0
I like what Solnit has to say. Keeping the long view in mind is critical for any movement. It's hard to remember that our lives are short in the grand scheme of things, and to expect wholesale change over the course of one lifespan is extremely ambitious. I have to say, I started reading this once in 2016, put it down, and picked it up again. It's feeling a little dated in her examples, but perhaps I'm just feeling heavy with the weight of the world right now. I think the message is still good.
susanbrooks's review against another edition
5.0
Profound, perspective changing essays that do what the title says. Give you hope that you can make change, even if you cannot predict outcomes of the daily news, or the actions of yourself or others. Did not find it at all dated, though she refers to events from 20 years ago.
mergito's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to love this, but sadly it feels very dated (not the authors fault)! My biggest problem was with a lot of assertion and not enough citation or evidence. Some of the claims are very contested, so it needed more back up to the argument.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks so much to Haymarket Books for making this available for free a few weeks ago. It was what I needed in the aftermath of the election, to get both riled up and stay hopeful. (Also has one of the best definitions of NAFTA I've run across.)
And to quote Dumbledore, who doesn't figure here but has the line that resonates the most: hope can be found in the darkest of places, if one only turns on the light.
And to quote Dumbledore, who doesn't figure here but has the line that resonates the most: hope can be found in the darkest of places, if one only turns on the light.
lmsmango's review against another edition
4.0
Rebecca Solnit does a very ambitious undertaking here, but her prose always delivers. I particularly enjoyed the chapters where she makes a solid case for grassroots movements - and how laying out the groundwork for a broader coalition, rather than treating social issues as isolated cases, should be the path we take moving forward. The essays themselves are more meditative than prescriptive, informed by her experiences as an activist and by people's stories on the ground. She deftly avoids the narrative of resilience and instead points towards how hope is an act of defiance, all the while criticizing the institutions that have made survival necessary in the first place. Was thinking of Freire the entire time. :)
On another note, it's pretty... insightful to scroll through reviews of this, particularly on the (negative) reviews that were hoping for some sort of concrete resolution. (Which is to miss the point entirely.) I understand the frustrations of having a lack of an answer here, especially as a person from the global south. But it's pretty baffling to expect Solnit as having the answers for those Big Questions when she spends the entire time talking about the struggles of others and encouraging her readers to take up responsibility - not to feel good, but to feel powerful - in a world that continuously strives to silence us.
So maybe I'll just leave this note from her own afterword: "And then there were my people, middle-class white people. It was as though many of us didn’t know how to be this other kind of person, this person who could speak of big dreams, of high ideals, of deep emotions, as though something more small-scale and sarcastic was the reduced version of self that remained to us. I've had great visionary companions the past dozen years from many places and races, but I've met so many of my kind who are attached for various reasons to their limits and their misery." :)
On another note, it's pretty... insightful to scroll through reviews of this, particularly on the (negative) reviews that were hoping for some sort of concrete resolution. (Which is to miss the point entirely.) I understand the frustrations of having a lack of an answer here, especially as a person from the global south. But it's pretty baffling to expect Solnit as having the answers for those Big Questions when she spends the entire time talking about the struggles of others and encouraging her readers to take up responsibility - not to feel good, but to feel powerful - in a world that continuously strives to silence us.
So maybe I'll just leave this note from her own afterword: "And then there were my people, middle-class white people. It was as though many of us didn’t know how to be this other kind of person, this person who could speak of big dreams, of high ideals, of deep emotions, as though something more small-scale and sarcastic was the reduced version of self that remained to us. I've had great visionary companions the past dozen years from many places and races, but I've met so many of my kind who are attached for various reasons to their limits and their misery." :)
rebecanunez's review against another edition
4.0
Un libro para esos momentos en donde uno pierde la fe en la humanidad. Muy interesante y creo que esta al alcance de la comprensión de cualquiera. Para volver a leer cada tanto.
harridansstew's review against another edition
4.0
Loved this and plan to reread it immediately to go over the sections about hope vs. cynicism.
rosietomyn's review against another edition
2.0
Having followed Rebecca Solnit for years, and having thoroughly enjoying so many of her works, I am baffled by how little I connected to this one. Hope in the Dark, even with its brief 2016 update, feels disjointed and dated. I found it more depressing than hopeful.
pattydsf's review against another edition
4.0
“To hope is to gamble. It's to bet on your futures, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk.”
“Your opponents would love you to believe that it's hopeless, that you have no power, that there's no reason to act, that you can't win. Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away.”
“Joy doesn’t betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated, and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.”
This short collection of essays was first published in 2004. Solnit then updated this book with additional information and essays in 2016, before the election of our present President. I am including this information in my review to remind me that all was not rosy before 2016. We have had bad government before and we will have it again. However, we all need reminders that hope is worth having and Solnit’s writings gives me that hope.
I use the word “hope” a lot. I tell friends that I hope they are well, that they have a happy birthday, and other good things. It is a word that I have trouble finding a synonym for. The thesaurus connected to the Word software includes the following words as synonyms: confidence, expectation, optimism and faith. These words are good, but don’t have the resonance of “hope”, in my opinion.
Solnit’s essays help me remember why I like the word “hope” and why we need to keep hoping that things will improve. I am especially glad for her reminder that we cannot accomplish everything at once and we are making headway in changing the world to be a more just and compassionate place.
If you are struggling with the present administration in DC or a local political problem, like our issues with pipelines in Virginia, I strongly urge you to pick up these essays. Solnit does not solve all our problems, but she gives us courage to keep working towards a better future.
“Your opponents would love you to believe that it's hopeless, that you have no power, that there's no reason to act, that you can't win. Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away.”
“Joy doesn’t betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated, and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.”
This short collection of essays was first published in 2004. Solnit then updated this book with additional information and essays in 2016, before the election of our present President. I am including this information in my review to remind me that all was not rosy before 2016. We have had bad government before and we will have it again. However, we all need reminders that hope is worth having and Solnit’s writings gives me that hope.
I use the word “hope” a lot. I tell friends that I hope they are well, that they have a happy birthday, and other good things. It is a word that I have trouble finding a synonym for. The thesaurus connected to the Word software includes the following words as synonyms: confidence, expectation, optimism and faith. These words are good, but don’t have the resonance of “hope”, in my opinion.
Solnit’s essays help me remember why I like the word “hope” and why we need to keep hoping that things will improve. I am especially glad for her reminder that we cannot accomplish everything at once and we are making headway in changing the world to be a more just and compassionate place.
If you are struggling with the present administration in DC or a local political problem, like our issues with pipelines in Virginia, I strongly urge you to pick up these essays. Solnit does not solve all our problems, but she gives us courage to keep working towards a better future.