This book is an inspiring and motivating intellectual journey into the progress of human action.

The future is unknowable and always unfolding; the fact that we have not achieved utopia does not mean that we have accomplished nothing. The middle class habit of despair and helplessness does not suit our spirits as human beings nor the needs of our time. A million examples from the past 40 years of previously unthinkable triumphs over the powers of the state and the corporations.

Like everything Solnit writes, this is superb. ( )

Meditations are out of fashion as a literary category. When services were in another language, churchgoers needed something prayerful to keep them in the pews. They could tease out meanings from poetry or read a tract that looked at an issue of the soul every which way. Rebecca Solnot's reflection on the political left seems a lot like the latter, and there's a religious fervor for it among the Indivisible flock.

The central question is the one Sarah Palin posed mockingly: How's that hopey, changey thing working out for ya? The answer is, as it should be, I'm working on it. Change rarely comes quickly. The point doesn't lend itself well to a didactic format, and even this small volume belabors it. But I appreciate Solnot's reflection. The rosary isn't my style either.

A bunch of easy to read, short essays on the necessary function of hope to effect change. Puts modern activism into historical context, urges readers to think of justice as a continual process (not a static end goal/state), as well as to consider the counterfactual (what horrible thing *didn't* happen due to protests). Solnit critiques the "apocalypse is coming" brand of liberal cynicism that views hope as a naive anathema.

Written in 2004 but still relevant today. ( )

The trouble with avant guarde politics is that it is always grumpy. This is not right, that is wrong - and, of course, politics should never sit on its laurels and become self congratulatory.

The problem is that it can easily leave one feeling bleak: if one can never reach Valhalla, then perhaps one might as well give up: what's the point?

This little book is that injection of positivity that is sometimes needed. It is an excellent read and will be dipped into on many occasions. ( )