Author:
Rebecca Solnit
Stars:
4
Review by: kayaker
Solnit is a historian with a flair for the counter factual. For
instance, she tells us that she became a historian to find the truth
since it was an 'elusive entity' during her childhood. However, she
goes on to say that the pursuit of knowledge with that element of truth
is always a pursuit because the more you think you know the more you
have to go for that knowledge. Ignorance is the limiting element.
Solnit's perspective on most of the topics in this book are turned
upside down to get at the other side of the expected and widely held
beliefs. She urges us to stop thinking that we know what will happen in
the next hour, the afternoon, the next morning because we don't and,
even if we did, Solnit proposes that we might not know if we can deal
with what will happen. Each essay contains one or two, sometimes three,
nuggets of interest that made me stop to think a bit harder about my own
beliefs.
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