At a time when political, environmental and social gloom can seem overpowering, this remarkable work offers a lucid, affirmative and well-argued case for hope. Tracing a history of activism and social change over the past five decades - including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Zapatista uprising in Mexico to Seattle in 1999, and the worldwide marches against the war in Iraq - Solnit proposes a vision of cause-and-effect relations that provides new grounds for political engagement. Solnit's book is accessible and essential reading. Drawing from thinkers of the last century - including Woolf, Ghandi, Borges, Benjamin and Havel. She creates a manifesto for optimism for the twenty-first century and gives us all true reasons to never surrender.