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The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change
Not yet published
Expected 3 Mar 26Rebecca Solnit offers a thrilling survey 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. She argues that, despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility, it is an inevitability, and the nature of that change is determined by who participates and how.
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 has happened in so many disparate arenas, and within a longer arc of history, the scale of that change is seldom recognized.
While the backlash of white nationalist authoritarianism, Manosphere misogyny, and justifications for callousness, selfishness, economic inequality, and environmental destruction collectively drive individualism and isolation, the elements of this new world are related in their vision of more inclusion, equality, interconnection. This new vision embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, and indigenous and non-Western ideas, particularly Buddhism, as well as breakthroughs in the life sciences and neuroscience, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.
In this sequel to her enduring bestseller Hope in the Dark, Solnit surveys a world that has changed dramatically since the year 1960. She argues that, despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility, it is an inevitability, and the nature of that change is determined by who participates and how.
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 has happened in so many disparate arenas, and within a longer arc of history, the scale of that change is seldom recognized.
While the backlash of white nationalist authoritarianism, Manosphere misogyny, and justifications for callousness, selfishness, economic inequality, and environmental destruction collectively drive individualism and isolation, the elements of this new world are related in their vision of more inclusion, equality, interconnection. This new vision embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, and indigenous and non-Western ideas, particularly Buddhism, as well as breakthroughs in the life sciences and neuroscience, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.
160 pages, Paperback
Expected publication March 3, 2026
517 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Solnit
120 books8,034 followersWriter, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster, including Call Them By Their True Names (Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction), Cinderella Liberator, Men Explain Things to Me, The Mother of All Questions, and Hope in the Dark, and co-creator of the City of Women map, all published by Haymarket Books; a trilogy of atlases of American cities, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Wanderlust: A History of Walking, and River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (for which she received a Guggenheim, the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and the Lannan Literary Award). Her forthcoming memoir, Recollections of My Nonexistence, is scheduled to release in March, 2020. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a columnist at the Guardian and a regular contributor to Literary Hub.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 14, 2025
I have read just about everything Rebecca Solnit has written, but we just came crashing into the end of this experience when she starts idolizing Greta Thunberg. The best quote I have seen about Greta is that she is the Temu version of an advocate.
October 23, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Haymarket Books for the arc. Rebecca Solnit offers a vision of hope that is a balm during these political times. The way in which the idea is presented, interconnectedness etc, is uniquely Solnit.
She doesn’t tell us to not be afraid, but in the tapestry she weaves, she gives the reader a chance to take a step back and view the present as a part of the same garment that holds the pasts and upon which the future will be woven.
Interestingly, this volume of hope and social change (including climate activism) actually made me more curious about the natural world. Intentionally or not, this volume has sparked my curiosity about indigenous movements and their impact on our modern thinking.
If you need a light in the dark, The Beginning Comes After the End is a great choice.
She doesn’t tell us to not be afraid, but in the tapestry she weaves, she gives the reader a chance to take a step back and view the present as a part of the same garment that holds the pasts and upon which the future will be woven.
Interestingly, this volume of hope and social change (including climate activism) actually made me more curious about the natural world. Intentionally or not, this volume has sparked my curiosity about indigenous movements and their impact on our modern thinking.
If you need a light in the dark, The Beginning Comes After the End is a great choice.
December 19, 2025
The Beginning Comes After the End is one of those books that quietly but firmly reshapes how you think. Rebecca Solnit builds her argument essay by essay, dismantling the idea that political or social change should be fast, visible, or linear. She repeatedly returns to the point that despair often comes from expecting history to behave neatly, when in reality meaningful change unfolds slowly, unevenly, and often out of sight. By drawing on examples from feminist movements, climate activism, Indigenous resistance, and past political struggles, Solnit shows how victories are frequently recognized only years later, long after the work has been done.
One of the most powerful throughlines is her insistence that uncertainty is not a failure state but the very condition that makes hope possible. Solnit challenges the reader to sit with not knowing outcomes and still act, arguing that certainty belongs to the status quo, not to justice. Her discussions of silenced voices, especially women’s voices, tie personal experience to systemic patterns of erasure and power, reinforcing the idea that telling the truth is itself a form of resistance. The essays do not offer comfort in the form of easy solutions, but they offer something more durable: a framework for staying engaged without guarantees. By the end, the book feels less like a collection of essays and more like a recalibration of how to understand endings, failure, and the long work of change.
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.
One of the most powerful throughlines is her insistence that uncertainty is not a failure state but the very condition that makes hope possible. Solnit challenges the reader to sit with not knowing outcomes and still act, arguing that certainty belongs to the status quo, not to justice. Her discussions of silenced voices, especially women’s voices, tie personal experience to systemic patterns of erasure and power, reinforcing the idea that telling the truth is itself a form of resistance. The essays do not offer comfort in the form of easy solutions, but they offer something more durable: a framework for staying engaged without guarantees. By the end, the book feels less like a collection of essays and more like a recalibration of how to understand endings, failure, and the long work of change.
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A follow-up to Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power if you need a more hopeful perspective about the state of the world and how change occurs. This covers heavy topics but her writing is accessible. I'm just not fully convinced by the book's organization and how biological interconnectedness relates to our current political situation. This was also fully focused on the US and I wouldn't expect it to cover everything in the world, but the US is heavily linked to international issues ex. genocide in Palestine, which was not mentioned at all. The strongest parts of the book were about progress for Native Americans.
There were some interesting ideas in here that made me think and shifted my mindset a bit, and that's what I wanted, so it was still a worthwhile read. Thank you to NetGalley and Haymarket Books for the ARC!
There were some interesting ideas in here that made me think and shifted my mindset a bit, and that's what I wanted, so it was still a worthwhile read. Thank you to NetGalley and Haymarket Books for the ARC!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I've read most of Rebecca Solnit's essay collections and have enjoyed her perspective on personal and social issues. This book feels less organized around a specific thesis about change and instead features reflections on positive changes during her lifetime. I would have enjoyed more interconnectedness between the chapters or possibly a more chronological exploration of progress.
Solnit's writing is engaging, and she has a skill for finding and prioritizing hope in her framing of what's been accomplished and what work still needs to be done.
Thank you to NetGalley and Haymarket Books for the ARC!
Solnit's writing is engaging, and she has a skill for finding and prioritizing hope in her framing of what's been accomplished and what work still needs to be done.
Thank you to NetGalley and Haymarket Books for the ARC!
December 22, 2025
I received an ARC from the publisher. I've read almost everything Solnit has written and loved most of it. This one is definitely the exception to that. It's very fluffy and almost fangirlish compared to her previous books. It honestly feels like it was written by a different person. And yes blah, blah blah of course different person, time changes us all and these last few years have been shittier than most, but the writing tone and style feels completely changed and this one just didn't give me any feeling of connection to her writing.
Review of advance copy received from Author
4/5 STARS! Never read anything by this author, but I was blessed with an arc copy & am very grateful to be able to experience her smarts for a while. This book is science & biology versus current politics. It deals with how the past influences the future & nature versus nurture. I loved it & learned a lot & liked the wide variety of issues addressed. It does make you think & view things differently, maybe if you feel hopeless about the current state of America/the world. The title is perfect!
November 11, 2025
Exquisite writing as ever, thoughtful, challenging, important work. As always I enjoy the intellectual challenge of the author’s works. She challenges you to think hard about the world and your contribution in it. Highly recommended. Thanks to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
November 18, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.
Poignant and hopeful. Though The Beginning Comes After the End deals with serious issues like inequality, injustice, and environmental destruction, it didn’t feel heavy reading it. Rebecca Solnit weaves together many stories from science, culture, and activism to show how deeply connected we are and how real change can happen.
Solnit's writing is clear and compassionate and I was pleasantly surprised by how she was able to turn complex ideas into something so human, with vivid descriptions. It’s a story about courage and renewal and a much-needed reminder that progress is possible, and that we can all contribute to that.
3.5 stars rounding up, because it's a book we need in this moment.
Poignant and hopeful. Though The Beginning Comes After the End deals with serious issues like inequality, injustice, and environmental destruction, it didn’t feel heavy reading it. Rebecca Solnit weaves together many stories from science, culture, and activism to show how deeply connected we are and how real change can happen.
Solnit's writing is clear and compassionate and I was pleasantly surprised by how she was able to turn complex ideas into something so human, with vivid descriptions. It’s a story about courage and renewal and a much-needed reminder that progress is possible, and that we can all contribute to that.
3.5 stars rounding up, because it's a book we need in this moment.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews