A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit
A landmark investigation into how communities respond to disasters, and what we can learn from these displays of altruism and generosity in the face of adversity.
An eye-opening account of how much hope and solidarity emerges in the face of sudden disaster. . [These lessons] offer deep comfort now, as antidotes not just to feelings of helplessness but loneliness -- David Wallace-Wells
[An] expansive argument about human resilience . . . Though Solnit mobilizes decades of sociological research to support her argument, the chapters themselves move effortlessly through subtle philosophical readings and vivid narrations * The New Yorker *
Thought-provoking . . . captivating and compelling . . . there's a hopeful, optimistic, even contagious quality to this superb book * Los Angeles Times *
Far-reaching and large-spirited * San Francisco Chronicle *
What will it be like to live not on the relatively stable planet that civilization has known throughout the ten thousand years of the Holocene, but on the amped-up and careening planet we're quickly creating? With her remarkable and singular book, A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit has thought harder about the answer to that question than anyone else. Her answer is strangely and powerfully hopeful. As she proves with inspired historiography, disasters often produce remarkable temporary communities--paradises of a sort amid the rubble, where people, acting on their own and without direction from the authorities, manage to provide for each other * The New York Review of Books *
Stirring . . . fascinating . . . presents a withering critique of modern capitalist society by examining five catastrophes . . . Her account of these events are so stirring that her book is worth reading for its storytelling alone. . . . [An] exciting and important contribution to our understanding of ourselves * The Washington Post *
[An] expansive argument about human resilience . . . Though Solnit mobilizes decades of sociological research to support her argument, the chapters themselves move effortlessly through subtle philosophical readings and vivid narrations * The New Yorker *
Thought-provoking . . . captivating and compelling . . . there's a hopeful, optimistic, even contagious quality to this superb book * Los Angeles Times *
Far-reaching and large-spirited * San Francisco Chronicle *
What will it be like to live not on the relatively stable planet that civilization has known throughout the ten thousand years of the Holocene, but on the amped-up and careening planet we're quickly creating? With her remarkable and singular book, A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit has thought harder about the answer to that question than anyone else. Her answer is strangely and powerfully hopeful. As she proves with inspired historiography, disasters often produce remarkable temporary communities--paradises of a sort amid the rubble, where people, acting on their own and without direction from the authorities, manage to provide for each other * The New York Review of Books *
Stirring . . . fascinating . . . presents a withering critique of modern capitalist society by examining five catastrophes . . . Her account of these events are so stirring that her book is worth reading for its storytelling alone. . . . [An] exciting and important contribution to our understanding of ourselves * The Washington Post *
Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Orwell's Roses, Recollections of My Non-Existence, The Faraway Nearby, Wanderlust, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, River of Shadows and A Paradise Built in Hell. She is also the author of many essays on feminism, activism, social change, hope, and the climate crisis. She lives in San Francisco and writes regularly for the Guardian. She lives in San Francisco.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781803511696 |
| ISBN 10 | 1803511699 |
| Title | A Paradise Built in Hell |
| Author | Rebecca Solnit |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Granta Books |
| Year published | 2025-05-22 |
| Number of pages | 368 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |