Hope in the dark: untold histories, wild possibilities

186 Pages·2016·3.8 MB·English

by  Solnit, Rebecca

Hope
y With Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit makes a radical case for H “Rebecca Solnit is a national
h
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ra hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains un- o literary treasure: a passionate,
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oto certain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a p close-to-the-ground reporter with
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P wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Sol-
y the soul and voice of a philosopher-
one nit argues that radicals have a long, frequently overlooked record in poet. And, unlike so many who
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m of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our
e t write about the great injustices
d acts are not always immediately measurable, and that the embrace h in the
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J of this world, she is an optimist
© of uncertainty is both more useful and more accurate an assess- e
whose faith is deeply grounded in
ment than either passive optimism or pessimism and despair. D
Originally published in 2004, now with a new foreword and af- a a knowledge of history. This is a
terword, Solnit’s influential book shines a light into the darkness r book to give you not just hope but
k
of our time in an unforgettable new edition. zest for the battles ahead.”

Da rk —adam hochSchild
“Time and again she comes ru�nning towards you with a bunch of
hopes she has found and picked in the undergrowth of the times “I’ve found no more lucid and
we are living in. And you remember that hope is not a guarantee luminous a defense of hope than
for tomorrow but a detonator of energy for action today.” the one Rebecca Solnit launches in
—John beRgeR R Hope in the Dark—a slim, potent
e
Writer, historian, and activist b Untold Histories, book penned in the wake of the
“Hope in the Dark changed my life. During a period of pervasive e
Rebecca Solnit is the author of cynicism and political despair, the first edition of this book pro- c Bush administration’s invasion of
c
eighteen books about civil society, vided me with a model for activist engagement that I have held a Wild Possibilities Iraq, a book that has grown only

popular power, uprisings, art, dear ever since . . . Despite all the obstacles, we must not lose S more relevant and poignant in the
o
environment, place, pleasure, sight of the fact profound transformation is possible.” l decade since.”
n
politics, hope, and memory. She —aStRa tayloR
i —maRia PoPova
t
is a Harper’s contributing editor.
iSbn: 978-1-60846-576-7 $15.99
5 1 5 9 9
R e b e c c a S o l n i t
Haymarket
Books
haymarketbooks.org 9 781608 465767 With a neW FoReWoRd and aFteRWoRd
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Praise for Hope in the Dark
“This is the ultimate ‘feel-good’ book for exhausted campaigners and
activists . . . an intensely personal account, a meditation on activism
and hope.”
—Guardian
“Time and again she comes running towards you with a bunch of hopes
she has found and picked in the undergrowth of the times we are living
in. And you remember that hope is not a guarantee for tomorrow but a
detonator of energy for action today.”
—John Berger, author, Ways of Seeing
“No writer has better understood the mix of fear and possibility, peril,
and exuberance that’s marked this new millennium. Rebecca Solnit
writes as independently as Orwell; she’s a great muralist, a Diego
Rivera of words. Literary and progressive America is in a Solnit mo-
ment, which, given her endless talent, should last a very long time.”
—Bill McKibben, author, Deep Economy
“Hope in the Dark changed my life. During a period of pervasive cyn-
icism and political despair, the first edition of this book provided me
with a model for activist engagement that I have held dear ever since.
Today, as movements for climate, racial, and economic justice sweep
the globe, its message is more relevant than ever. In her inimitable
and inspiring way, Solnit reminds us that social change follows an un-
predictable path. Despite all the obstacles, we must not lose sight of
the fact profound transformation is possible. This book’s compact size
belies its true power. It provides succor and sustenance, fuel and fire for
those fighting for a more just world.”
—Astra Taylor, author, The People’s Platform
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“Rebecca Solnit is a national literary treasure: a passionate, close-to-
the-ground reporter with the soul and voice of a philosopher-poet.
And, unlike so many who write about the great injustices of this
world, she is an optimist whose faith is deeply grounded in a knowl-
edge of history. This is a book to give you not just hope but zest for
the battles ahead.”
—Adam Hochschild, author, King Leopold’s Ghost
Praise for earlier editions
“In this inspired meditation on the very nature of action and the rea-
sons 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
“Seemingly lost in the woods of deceit and banality, bereft of hope,
we are confronted by Rebecca Solnit and her astonishing flashlight.
In a jewel of a book that is poetic in substance as well as style, she
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.”
—Studs Terkel
“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
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“Can you imagine a cross between Joan Rivers and Simone de
Beauvoir? I didn’t think so, but no likelier hybrid comes to mind …
Solnit is the real activist deal: the type who gets arrested at nuclear
test sites and mans the barricades at the World Trade Organization
demonstrations in Seattle. She’s also the real freelance intellectual
deal: the much rarer type who earns her living generating reams of
thoughtful, wide-ranging nonfiction.”
—Newsday
“An inspired observer and passionate historian, [Solnit] is one of the
most creative, penetrating, and eloquent cultural critics writing to-
day. In her most personal critique to date, she reflects on the crucial,
often underrated accomplishments of grassroots activists. Solnit con-
templates 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 global-
ization 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, and
helps readers understand more clearly where we stand as individuals,
as Americans, and as citizens of the world.”
—Donna Seaman, Booklist
“This slim volume, to quote the author’s own reflections on the quin-
centennial 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 pro-
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test 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 US-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.’”
—Publishers Weekly
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Hope in the Dark
Untold Histories,
Wild Possibilities
Third Edition
with a new foreword and afterword
Rebecca Solnit
Haymarket Books
Chicago, Illinois
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First published in the United States by Nation Books in 2004
© Rebecca Solnit 2016
Published in 2016 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
[email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-60846-576-7
Trade distribution:
In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan
Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.
Cover design by Abby Weintraub.
Printed in Canada by union labor.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Foreword to the Third Edition: Grounds for Hope
xi
1 Looking Into Darkness
1
2 When We Lost
6
3 What We Won
14
4 False Hope and Easy Despair
19
5 A History of Shadows
25
6 The Millennium Arrives: November 9, 1989
35
7 The Millennium Arrives: January 1, 1994
40
8 The Millennium Arrives: November 30, 1999
46
9 The Millennium Arrives: September 11, 2001
54
10 The Millennium Arrives: February 15, 2003
57
11 Changing the Imagination of Change
60
12 On the Indirectness of Direct Action
64
13 The Angel of Alternate History
70
14 Viagra for Caribou
73
15 Getting the Hell out of Paradise
77
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16 Across the Great Divide
83
17 After Ideology, or Alterations in Time
91
18 The Global Local, or Alterations in Place
96
19 A Dream Three Times the Size of Texas
101
20 Doubt
107
21 Journey to the Center of the World
111
Looking Backward: The Extraordinary Achievements
of Ordinary People (2009)
115
Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls
Apart (2014)
126
Backward and Forward: An Afterword
137
Acknowledgments
143
Notes
145
About the Author
155
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Nothing that has ever happened should be regarded as lost for history.
—Walter Benjamin
If you don’t like the news . . . go out and make some of your own.
—Newsman Wes Nisker’s closing salutation
on radio station KSAN in the 1970s
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