From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire

by Sarah Jaffe

The politics of grief, in an era marked by loss, show us how we can find our humanity once more.   Our era is one of significant and substantial loss, yet we barely have time to acknowledge it. The losses range from the personal grief of a single COVID death to the planetary disaster wrought by climate change, in an age of unraveling hopes and expectations, of dreams curtailed, of aspirations desiccated.   This is capitalism’s death phase. It has become clear that the cost of wealth creation for a few is enormous destruction for others, for the marginalized and the vulnerable but increasingly for all of us.  At the same time we are denied the means of mourning those futures that are being so brutally curtailed.    At such a moment, taking the time to grieve is a political act. Sarah Jaffe shows how the act of public memorialization has become a radical statement, a vibrant response to loss and a path to imagining a better world. When we are able to grieve well the ones we have lost, the causes they fought for or the examples they bequeathed us, we are better prepared to fight for a transformed future.   

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Grief, Audiobook, Economics, Social Justice

400 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2024

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really mixed feelings about this. I love Sarah Jaffe's writing. It's evocative and beautiful, which political writing often isn't. The memoir-like breaks about her own experiences with grief, which I found sincerely moving, are the real standout in the book. The rest of the book is well written and reported. The stories are interesting and informative. But, for me, the politics that Jaffe uses them to point to leave a lot to be desired. I think the politics of turning toward community care and mutual aid is a response to a lack of power, and the way they're presented here as a path to healing in the midst of destruction doesn't really lead to the kind of mass politics that can build the power to challenge the ruling class that causes so much of our collective grief. I was struck by a tone of resignation that the destruction will continue unabated and the most we can do is try to protect each other as best we can.

[Sukhpreet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great and novel exploration of grief, personal and political. Heavily reference-laden, in a way that felt less accessible and more academic than her last book, for me, but perhaps that was more an issue of flow, in that it felt she was working through a lot of references to the work (organizing and writing) of others too quickly, at times. I suppose I wanted to read more of the personal passages regarding her experiences of grief--likely because I read it while grieving.

[jennifer]

Whew. A ferocious barrage of anguish and anger, like you’re inside a wailing scream. It was a lot, and then it was more, and more and more, and then the footnotes sent me down dozens of very deep rabbit holes (and that’s before forging the acknowledgments section). I have spent the last few years obsessed with a lot of the core ideas this book is also obsessed with, because it’s tapping something that is shaping us and our moment in major ways, on top of perennial usefulness.

It swamped me and was tough going for all that’s worthwhile there, but I love that it came home to a (dizzyingly referenced, with a lot of theory) paean to care — because care work is how I found Sarah’s reporting in the first place and I see her as a bard of care, of chronicling where care and work and self and relationships and feeling all intersect, and what it all means and why it matters.

I also love how she is living my young punk dream in all the profoundly hard and beautiful ways. May she keep it coming; we need it and all the intersecting conversations before and ahead.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this, but Jaffe clearly wanted to write a memoir rather than a piece of reportage, and it shows: she's far more interested in herself than in any of her subjects. This could have been a much better book.

[Evelyn Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire by Sarah Jaffe is a piercing and profoundly human meditation on what it means to mourn and how, in doing so, we reclaim our capacity to build a more compassionate world.

In a time marked by collective loss of lives, of stability, of faith in progress Jaffe dares to frame grief not as paralysis, but as power. Through sharp political insight and lyrical prose, she reveals how acknowledging pain becomes a radical act of resistance against systems that demand endurance instead of empathy. From pandemic mourning to climate anxiety, she draws a direct line between personal sorrow and social transformation.

Jaffe’s argument is bold yet deeply tender: that to grieve is to remember our humanity, and that through communal mourning, we rediscover solidarity, purpose, and hope. Her writing bridges the analytical and the emotional, calling readers to imagine a world rebuilt not through denial, but through care.

For readers of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit, From the Ashes is both a manifesto and a mirror an urgent reminder that even in despair, we can kindle the beginnings of renewal.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah Jaffe is a beautiful writer, and I am particularly drawn to both memoir and stories of grief and the grieving process, so her latest book drew me in immediately. The author's introductory sections are heartfelt, humble, honest, and resonant. However, the meat of the book turns its focus on socio-political problems, with an overarching condemnation of the long, dark shadow of capitalism. Jaffe has a lot of expertise here as well, but I found the joining of her two foci a bit forced.

Grief is everywhere, she suggests, in our losses of jobs, homes, climate stability, security, community. It's an intriguing concept, but it didn't feel like an apt comparison between her personal grief and the community grief she highlighted.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is fascism getting you down? This book is the remedy.

Sarah Jaffe shows us how the transformational power of grief can help us live more hopefully through the current crises and the upcoming ones. She talks to activists and grievers from all over the world to get their perspectives about loss, both personal and political. Jaffe's prose strikes all the right chords and I can be grateful again for living and loving (and losing) after reading this.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

First line: “A police car on fire is the perfect embodiment of grief.”

Last line: “And so I say here, to close, remembering all the people we have lost, the names too numerous to say here, the fathers sisters cousins lovers brothers friends, the ancestors we claim for ourselves: may their memory be for a revolution.”

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a Sarah Jaffe fan ever since she covered Occupy Wall Street. I recommend folks read this book — especially those who could use more information about the interlocking crises of the 2020s. I knocked off a couple of stars, though, because I found the throughline of grief to be a bit of a weak thread attempting to connect disparate issues.

[Bruin Mccon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt this book hard, from the late father who worked too long and too hard to the life raising up stories of others. Also loved, “May their memory be for revolution.” What a freaking line!

[musa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant testimony to the power of communal grief and collective actions.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jaffe combines her own working through the grief of her father's death along with the changing landscape as a part of COVID. Jaffe combines short interludes on how she handled her grieving with various topics that have been coming up over the last five years (climate change, deindustrialization, community care, state violence). Fantastic, galvanizing read.