Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books including the international bestseller Men Explain Things to Me. Called “the voice of the resistance” by the New York Times, she has emerged as an essential guide to our times, through incisive commentary on feminism, violence, ecology, hope, and everything in between.In this powerful and wide-ranging collection of essays, Solnit turns her attention to the war at home. This is a war, she says, “with so many casualties that we should call it by its true name, this war with so many dead by police, by violent ex-husbands and partners and lovers, by people pursuing power and profit at the point of a gun or just shooting first and figuring out who they hit later.” To get to the root of these American crises, she contends that “to acknowledge this state of war is to admit the need for peace,” countering the despair of our age with a dose of solidarity, creativity, and hope. The loneliness of Donald Trump -- Coda (July 16, 2018) -- Milestones in misogyny -- Twenty million missing storytellers -- Ideology of isolation -- Naïve cynicism -- Facing the furies -- Preaching to the choir -- Climate change is violence -- Blood on the foundation -- Death by gentrification: the killing of Alex Nieto and the savaging of San Francisco -- No way in, no way out -- Bird in a cage: visiting Jarvis Masters on death row -- Coda: case dismissed -- The monument wars -- Eight million ways to belong -- The light from Standing Rock -- Break the story -- Hope in grief -- In praise of indirect consequences