The Beginning Comes After the End

Notes on a World of Change

Rebecca Solnit offers a thrilling account of the sheer breadth and scale of social, political, scientific, and cultural change over the past three quarters of a century.

In this sequel to her enduring bestseller Hope in the Dark, Solnit surveys a world that has changed dramatically since the year 1960. Despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility; it is an inevitability.

The changes amount to nothing less than dismantling an old civilization and building a new one, whose newness is often the return of the old ways and wisdoms. In this rising worldview, interconnection is a core idea and value. But because the transformation is obscured within a longer arc of history, its scale is seldom recognized.

While the white nationalist and authoritarian backlash drives individualism and isolation, this new world embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, scientific breakthroughs, and Indigenous and non-Western ideas, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.

©2026 Rebecca Solnit (P)2026 Tantor Media

Forward!

This book put meat on what I already have sensed and know. In the process, it made me feel less crazy and less depressed. For that, I am very grateful. Thank you.

It's the Narration

I couldn't focus on the story because of the breathy style of narration. Blame it on my misophonia, but I can't tolerate storytelling when it's whispery. I made it through two chapters and had to stop. I won't be able to finish listening.