Scott F reviewed Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
Many gems; occasionally dated
3 stars
An at times brilliant book. Many times I wanted to stand up and applaud because these essays perfectly summed up something that bugs me when doing activism, like:
- "Naive Cynicism," on scolds who tell you what you want to achieve is unrealistic, so forget about it.
- "Preaching to the Choir," on the value of talking to people you already agree with, to deepen your understanding and alignment and keep one another motivated.
- "In Praise of Indirect Consequences," on how efforts that may seem to be failures reverberate, inspiring or enabling great successes later.
I also appreciated the essays on climate change as violence, and the in-depth discussion of the factors in Alex Nieto's killing by the San Francisco Police Department. All of these, and more, remain relevant.
Parts of this book on the 2016 election and the Trump presidency have aged less well. You'll be reminded of news cycles that …
An at times brilliant book. Many times I wanted to stand up and applaud because these essays perfectly summed up something that bugs me when doing activism, like:
- "Naive Cynicism," on scolds who tell you what you want to achieve is unrealistic, so forget about it.
- "Preaching to the Choir," on the value of talking to people you already agree with, to deepen your understanding and alignment and keep one another motivated.
- "In Praise of Indirect Consequences," on how efforts that may seem to be failures reverberate, inspiring or enabling great successes later.
I also appreciated the essays on climate change as violence, and the in-depth discussion of the factors in Alex Nieto's killing by the San Francisco Police Department. All of these, and more, remain relevant.
Parts of this book on the 2016 election and the Trump presidency have aged less well. You'll be reminded of news cycles that seemed like a big deal when they were filling your Twitter feed, but that haven't turned out to be that era's significant milestones, for better or worse.
Well worth picking up, but given the Trump minutiae, perhaps read selectively.