In speaking with rafia zakaria about her latest book, rebecca solnit explains how she thinks the coronavirus pandemic is reorienting us as a society, what extraordinary things feminism has. A history of walking by rebecca solnit online at alibris. On the back cover, will self describes the book as magisterial. Lucas university of nevada, reno walking is asubject that is always straying, writes rebecca solnit, and sheshould know 8.
Rebecca solnit is an american writer and activist, with a diverse bibliography ranging from gender and cultural studies to travel writing, film biography and politics. Solnits 2008 essay men explain things to me helped give birth to the term, which has been. With all due regards to the subtitle of this book, historys the least of it. The mother of all questions adjust share by rebecca solnit. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Rebecca solnit books list of books by author rebecca solnit. How i became a writer, historian, and activist rebecca solnit is the author of 20 books on subjects including feminism, cities, and politics. She has written on a variety of subjects, including the environment, politics, place. Her book captures, in the ease and cadences of its prose, the rhythms of a good walk. Rebecca solnit is author of, among other books, men explain things to me, wanderlust, a field guide to getting lost, the nbcc awardwinning river of shadows and a paradise built in hell. A history of walking study guide and get instant access to the following summary. Wanderlust is a much bigger and more ambitious bookso much bigger that i often struggled to read the very small print in the granta paperback edition. Solnit illustrates how the uprisings that begin on the streets can upend the status quo and topple authoritarian regimes vice.
A passionate, thought provoking exploration of walking as a political and cultural activity, from the author of the memoir recollections of my nonexistence drawing together many historiesof anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual moresrebecca solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. The faraway nearby is possibly solnits best, although her previous books especially river of shadows, wanderlust, and a field guide to getting lost were tremendous achievements as. The author explores the position that landscape and walking have in the history of literature, and philosophy, whilst reminiscing on the walks she has taken in the usa, europe and the uk. Wanderlust is astonishingly more than that, including digression, celebration, and a certain amount of excess that lifts the mundane practice of walking out of the. An irreverent and passionate account of human activity, the book includes profiles of some of the. As the title suggests, the territory of solnits concerns is vast, and in her signature alchemical style she combines commentary on history, justice, war and peace, and explorations of place, art, and. Thriftbooks sells millions of used books at the lowest everyday prices. In 2014, solnit turned men explain things to me into a book, which has, to date, sold about 90,000 copies. Expansive and engaging, rebecca solnits wanderlust explores the history of walking in the west. Starting with rousseau and the romantics, solnit argues, walking became selfconscious, and against the backdrop of the french revolution and industrialization, the act started to accrue dynamic, democratic, and subversive cultural meanings it had never before held in western societies. The incomparable rebecca solnit, author of more than a dozen acclaimed, prizewinning books of nonfiction, brings her dazzling writing to the essays in encyclopedia of trouble and spaciousness.
With the hindsight of a decade and a half, solnits book emerges as triply timely today, as we struggle to master that ever more precarious. Rebecca solnit is the author of numerous books, including hope in the dark, river of shadows. Arguing that walking as history means walking for pleasure and for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, solnit homes in on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from the peripatetic philosophers of ancient greece to the poets of the romantic age, from the perambulations of the surrealists to the ascents of. In a series of personal but unsentimental essays, she gave succinct shorthand. Eadweard muybridge and the technological wild west, wanderlust.
A regular contributor to magazines and newspapers such as harpers and the guardian, solnits writing career began in the late1980s and was intrinsically connected to her. On landscape, gender, and art, which was nominated. Eadweard muybridge and the technological wild west, which won five awards, including the national book critics circle award for criticism and the mark lynton history prize. Rebecca solnits wanderlust a history of walking is an entertaining read, an erudite guide for pilgrims, promenaders, and wanderers, for all those who walk for travel and leisure, health and pleasure. Drawing together many historiesof anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual moresrebecca solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. A decade ago, during a conversation that was supposed to be about a book.
On landscape, gender, and art, which was nominated for the national book critics circle award in criticism. Eadweard muybridge and the technological wild west. A history ofiwalking, winds through myriad discussions such as the origins ofbidpedalism, challenges ofpilgrimage, and collective action of protests. Her 2014 collection of essays men explain things to me undoubtedly influenced the popular use of the term mansplaining, and a field guide to getting lost and numerous other writings have received ongoing acclaim and feel increasingly relevant in todays tense political climate. The second source of her book not always in harmony with her first is solnits conscious romantic and democratic passion to defend the places people meet and assemble. How i became a writer, historian, and activist cosmopolitan. Rebecca solnit is sometimes thanked and sometimes blamed for the word mansplain. The ability to walk on two legs over long distances distinguishes homo sapiens from other primates, and indeed from every other species on earth. Rebecca solnit on mansplaining and her new book, the. Rebecca solnit is author of, among other books, wanderlust, a book of migrations, a field guide to getting lost, the nbcc awardwinning river of shadows and a paradise built in hell. Rebecca solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including the memoir recollections of my nonexistence and the nonfiction a field guide to getting lost.
Rebecca solnit i like walking because it is slow, and i suspect that the mind, like the feet, works at about three miles an hour. How rebecca solnit became the voice of the resistance. The extraordinary communities that arise in disaster began as an essay called the uses of disaster. Rebecca solnits book wanderlust recounts the revelations of wordsworth, then traces backward to the influence of rousseau on the philosophy of righteous walkers.
Notes on bad weather and good government published by harpers magazine the day that hurricane. I was very much looking forward to reading wanderlust, as i had recently enjoyed rebecca solnits the faraway nearby and a field guide to getting lost. A history of walking, and as eve said to the serpent. She traces back even further, through religious pilgrimages, nomadic tribes, and the evolutionary leap that took place when homo sapiens first stood erect and decided to go out to eat. Wanderlust by rebecca solnit, 9781783780396, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. The faraway nearby by rebecca solnit the boston globe. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and. Walking is natural, or rather part of natural history, writes essayist solnit a book of migrations, 1997, etc.
During the questionandanswer period that followed it, the subject that seemed to most interest a number of people was whether woolf should have had children. A pastoral and poetic investigation of the politics, philosophy and human pleasure in the activity of walking. Easy chair the mother of all questions, by rebecca. In a series of well written essays, the author explored the contemplative, practical, and literary experiences of many who have. Solnit is the author of seventeen books as well as essays in numerous museum catalogs and anthologies. She frequently conceives of walking as an activity that, although being displaced from and even squeezed out of society, also constitutes an instrument for reclaiming the world.
If this is so, then modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought or thoughtfulness. A history of walking by rebecca solnit and think it is one of the greatest books ever written. David levensongetty images early in the faraway nearby, a book about memory, loss and storytelling, rebecca solnit writes of. In this book about walking, what it means to walk, changing views about walking, different kinds of walking, she has created a beautiful weaving together of all sorts of topics, from evolutionary development which came first, being bipedal, or cognition. Rebecca solnit is the author of ten books, including river of shadows. How to exist in a world that seeks to erase women opinion.