The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit; London: Granta Publications, 2026
This follows on from her previous book Hope in the Dark, and aims to remind the reader of the enormous cultural and political changes over the last few decades: the expansion of black people’s rights, women’s rights, gay rights, as well as the expansion of our awareness of the environment and how we are connected to it and are a part of it. She acknowledges that there is great resistance to these changes, and that we are living through a period of uncertainty, but “you don’t need to know the future to act in the present.”
There are a lot of ideas in the book, and some lovely phrases: “we are not nouns: we are verbs.” Nevertheless I was left feeling that she had missed out some important things. What made all these changes possible? Was it just the expansion of people’s consciousness? And why has the backlash against this liberalisation sprung up now, at this specific moment? She describes us as a “bridge generation”, but how for example do we forge new relationships between men and women, in this time of uncertainty when the old expectations and dreams are fading but the new culture is not yet in place?
It seems to me that the cultural revolutions of the sixties and after were made possible (among other things) by an unprecedented prosperity, and as the West stumbles and becomes less self-confident those revolutions will face increasing headwinds. If we don’t understand where we are then we won’t be able to defend those gains as they face a well-organised and energised reaction.
This was first posted on Deep Left.
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