A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster -- Rebecca Solnit, Paperback

"A landmark book that gives impassioned challenge to the social meaning of disasters" (The New York Times Book Review) from the author of Orwell's Roses

"Solnit argues that disasters are opportunities as well as oppressions, each one a summons to rediscover the powerful engagement and joy of genuine altruism, civic life, grassroots community, and meaningful work." --San Francisco Chronicle

Chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune

The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster's grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.

Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 08/31/2010
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 8.48h x 6.50w x 0.79d
ISBN: 9780143118077
Age Range: 18-UP

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 09/26/2010 pg. 24

About the Author
Rebecca Solnit is the author of numerous books, including Hope in the Dark, River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, Wanderlust: A History of Walking, and As Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape, Gender, and Art, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. In 2003, she received the prestigious Lannan Literary Award.