Hope in the Dark : the untold story of people power

Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.

Hope in the Dark argues for a new understanding of the breakthroughs that have changed our lives and our society. Multi-award winning columnist, author and activist Rebecca Solnit traces a history of people power over five decades and provides both a defence of protest and an exploration of hope in dark times.

Analysing recent breakthroughs—from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the US Supreme Court rulings in support of gay marriage—and contemporary movements—from the worldwide marches against the war in Iraq to the Zapatista uprising in Mexico—Solnit's grasp of change in the twentieth century creates a manifesto for optimism in the twenty-first.

Praise for Hope in the Dark:

'Great…this book offers us the key to liberation…and that key is hope.'

Tony Benn

'A jewel of a book…Solnit reveals where we were, where we are, and the step-by-step advances that have been made in human rights, as we stubbornly stumble out of the darkness…It surges.'

Studs Terkel

'Like Simon Schama, Solnit is a cultural historian in the desert-mystic mode, trailing ideas like swarms of butterflies.'

Harper's

'Radical, humane, witty, sometimes wonderfully dandyish, at other times, impassioned and serious.'

Alain de Botton (on Wanderlust)