Storming the Gates of Paradise : Landscapes for Politics

Rebecca Solnit has made a vocation of journeying into difficult territory and reporting back, as an environmentalist, antiglobalization activist, and public intellectual. Storming the Gates of Paradise, an anthology of her essential essays from the past ten years, takes the reader from the Pyrenees to the U.S.--Mexican border, from San Francisco to London, from open sky to the deepest mines, and from the antislavery struggles of two hundred years ago to today's street protests. The nearly forty essays collected here comprise a unique guidebook to the American landscape after the millennium--not just the deserts, skies, gardens, and wilderness areas that have long made up Solnit's subject matter, but the social landscape of democracy and repression, of borders, ruins, and protests. She ventures into territories as dark as prison and as sublime as a broad vista, revealing beauty in the harshest landscape and political struggle in the most apparently serene view. Her introduction sets the tone and the book's overarching themes as she describes Thoreau, leaving the jail cell where he had been confined for refusing to pay war taxes and proceeding directly to his favorite huckleberry patch. In this way she links pleasure to politics, brilliantly demonstrating that the path to paradise has often run through prison.These startling insights on current affairs, politics, culture, and history, always expressed in Solnit's pellucid and graceful prose, constantly revise our views of the otherwise ordinary and familiar. Illustrated throughout, Storming the Gates of Paradise represents recent developments in Solnit's thinking and offers the reader a panoramic world view enriched by her characteristically provocative, inspiring, and hopeful observations. Rebecca Solnit has made a vocation of journeying into difficult territory and reporting back, as an environmentalist, antiglobalization activist, and public intellectual. Storming the Gates of Paradise , an anthology of her essential essays from the past ten years, takes the reader from the Pyrenees to the U.S.--Mexican border, from San Francisco to London, from open sky to the deepest mines, and from the antislavery struggles of two hundred years ago to todays street protests. The nearly forty essays collected here comprise a unique guidebook to the American landscape after the millenniumnot just the deserts, skies, gardens, and wilderness areas that have long made up Solnits subject matter, but the social landscape of democracy and repression, of borders, ruins, and protests. She ventures into territories as dark as prison and as sublime as a broad vista, revealing beauty in the harshest landscape and political struggle in the most apparently serene view. Her introduction sets the tone and the books overarching themes as she describes Thoreau, leaving the jail cell where he had been confined for refusing to pay war taxes and proceeding directly to his favorite huckleberry patch. In this way she links pleasure to politics, brilliantly demonstrating that the path to paradise has often run through prison. These startling insights on current affairs, politics, culture, and history, always expressed in Solnits pellucid and graceful prose, constantly revise our views of the otherwise ordinary and familiar. Illustrated throughout, Storming the Gates of Paradise represents recent developments in Solnits thinking and offers the reader a panoramic world view enriched by her characteristically provocative, inspiring, and hopeful observations. Rebecca Solnit has made a vocation of journeying into difficult territory and reporting back, as an environmentalist, antiglobalization activist, and public intellectual. This anthology of her essential essays from the past ten years takes the reader from the Pyrenees to the U.S.-Mexican border, from San Francisco to London, from open sky to the deepest mines, and from the antislavery struggles of two hundred years ago to today's street protests. The nearly forty essays collected here comprise a unique guidebook to the American landscape after the millennium--not just the deserts, skies, gardens, and wilderness areas that have long made up Solnit's subject matter, but the social landscape of democracy and repression, of borders, ruins, and protests. She ventures into territories as dark as prison and as sublime as a broad vista, revealing beauty in the harshest landscape and political struggle in the most apparently serene view.--From publisher description Contents......Page 10 List of Photographs......Page 14 Introduction: Prisons and Paradises......Page 16 1. Uneven Terrain: The West......Page 28 2. Borders and Crossers......Page 82 3. Trouble Below: Mining, Water, and Nuclear Waste......Page 128 4. Reaching for the Sky......Page 156 5. Landscapes of Resistance and Repression......Page 192 6. Gardens and Wildernesses......Page 238 7. Women's Place......Page 288 8. Infernal Museums......Page 320 9. City at the End of the World......Page 346 Coda: The Pacific......Page 392 Acknowledgments......Page 400 Notes......Page 402 Permissions......Page 422 Index......Page 425 An anthology of nearly forty essays, representing the author's work over the past ten years, offers an insightful overview of American politics, current affairs, culture, society, and history, written from the perspective of a noted environmentalist, anti-globalization activist, and public intellectual. By the author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Rebecca Solnit. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 387-405) And Index.