Writer and historian Rebecca Solnit reflects on the grounds for hope in times of political despair, drawing on examples of social movements that achieved change against seemingly impossible odds. Originally published in 2004 as the Iraq War dragged on, the book has been revised to address subsequent challenges while maintaining its core argument: that political action can transform the world in ways that are unpredictable in advance, and that despair itself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that prevents the very changes it mourns. Solnit traces victories from the civil rights movement to the fall of the Berlin Wall to marriage equality, showing how activists often did not see their success coming until it arrived. She writes against both false hope that ignores real obstacles and fatalism that ignores real possibilities. The book is essayistic rather than systematic, mixing historical analysis with personal reflection and literary allusion. Solnit's prose is elegant and her perspective capacious, finding connections between apparently disparate movements and moments. For readers feeling overwhelmed by political crisis, she offers neither comforting lies nor comfortable despair but rather a demanding form of hope that requires action without guarantee of success.