The Beginning Comes After the End
Notes on a World of Change
Rebecca Solnit’s clearsighted, inspiring essay collection celebrates the achievements of the progressive movement and poses a hopeful vision of the future.
This book celebrates an “epic transformation” still underway, driven by the efforts of feminists, environmental and climate activists, civil rights activists, and liberal thinkers over the past six decades. “Swimming Upstream” highlights the return of large parcels of land in California to Indigenous people and the restoration of salmon habitat on the Klamath River. Other essays applaud the progressive social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including Martin Luther King Jr’s leadership in civil rights and Rachel Carson’s powerful ecological statements in Silent Spring. To emphasize the progress of women’s rights, Solnit contrasts her recent reaction to a favorite movie, Purple Rain, with her experience when she first watched the movie in 1984, when a woman’s abuse seemed normal.
Solnit acknowledges perceived setbacks, including the influence of Donald Trump, whom she describes as a promoter of fascism, authoritarianism, and a “rigidly hierarchical order…in which mobility, fluidity, equality, were banished.” Similarly, “Winged Seeds” includes a critique of the extreme power and wealth of Silicon Valley oligarchs and the destructiveness of “colonial-industrial capitalism,” which Solnit says objectifies and commodifies humans and nature. She insists, however, that “deeper currents of change” will win out. Transitions, the book notes, are rarely elegant; they involve “a lot of falling apart.” Analogies are drawn to the natural world, including the dissolution of a caterpillar during its metamorphosis into a butterfly and the fire required for sequoia seeds to generate new life. Buddhist principles of compassion and interconnection are often mentioned in the book’s descriptions of social transformation.
A powerful essay collection, The Beginning Comes After the End represents an optimistic review of progressive ideas and achievements.
Reviewed by
Kristen Rabe
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
