Call Them By Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays)

by Rebecca Solnit Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Overview

In this powerful and wide-ranging collection of essays, Rebecca Solnit turns her attention to the war at home. This is a war, she says, "with so many casualties that we should call it by its true name, this war with so many dead by police, by violent ex-husbands and partners and lovers, by people pursuing power and profit at the point of a gun or just shooting first and figuring out who they hit later." To get to the root of these American crises, she contends that "to acknowledge this state of war is to admit the need for peace," countering the despair of our age with a dose of solidarity, creativity, and hope.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Narrator Cassandra Campbell is unrelenting in her steadiness, and her understated performance offers a perfect counterweight to the challenging themes and ideas." -AudioFile

Library Journal - Audio

11/15/2018

Solnit does it again. In her follow-up to The Mother of All Questions, she presents culturally and politically relevant essays that dive below the surface of such topics as misogyny, voter suppression, civil rights, gentrification, and climate change. "The recent event on the surface," Solnit writes, "is often merely the hood ornament on the mighty social engine that is a story driving the culture." That concept is best illustrated in her essays about Alex Nieto, a 28-year-old man who was killed by police in San Francisco in 2014, and Jarvis Masters, a Buddhist author who has spent the past 25 years on death row in San Quentin for a crime he says he didn't commit. Cassandra Campbell's narration captures that sense of hope that serves as the undercurrent in these pieces. Her voice is steady and measured, providing the quiet strength and defiance that builds to the author's final message: "This work will only matter if it's sustained. To sustain it, people have to believe that the myriad small, incremental actions matter…even when the consequences aren't immediate or obvious." VERDICT If recent events have got you down, Solnit's latest essays will lift you up.—Gladys Alcedo, Wallingford CT

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170490745
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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