United States

The political climate of the United States serves as the implicit backdrop to Hope in the Dark, as Solnit acknowledges that many citizens of the country feel defeated after the reelection of President Bush and the decision to proceed with the War in Iraq. For Solnit, the United States at the time she is writing represents the "dark" future that Virginia Woolf wrote about in her journal, meaning that though the climate looks, feels, and reads like one of sadness and despair, there is ultimately know way of knowing what lies ahead for the country. As such, Solnit uses other areas of the globe - namely South America and Mexico - to counter the climate of the United States and show that political and social revolutions are occurring at the same time American activists are despairing at home. She acknowledges that she, too, is unhappy with...