"Changing the world means changing the story, the names, and the language with which we describe it. Calling things by their true names cuts through the lies that excuse, disguise, avoid, or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness in the face of injustice and violence. In this powerful and wide-ranging collection, Solnit turns her attention to battles over meaning, place, language, and belonging at the heart of the defining crises of our time. She explores the way emotions shape political life, electoral politics, police shootings and gentrification, the life of an extraordinary man on death row, the pipeline protest at Standing Rock, and the existential threat posed by climate change."--

Foreword: Politics and the American language -- Armpit wax --

I.

Electoral catastrophes. Loneliness of Donald Trump ; Coda (July 16, 2018) -- Milestones in misogyny -- Twenty million missing storytellers --

II.

American emotions. Ideology of isolation -- Naïve cynicism -- Facing the furies -- Preaching to the choir --

III.

American edges. Climate change is violence -- Blood on the foundation -- Death by gentrification: the killing of Alex Nieto and the savaging of San Francisco -- No way in, no way out -- Bird in a cage: visiting Jarvis Masters on death row ; Coda: Case dismissed -- Monument wars -- Eight million ways to belong -- Light from Standing Rock --

IV.

Possibilities. Break the story -- Hope in grief -- In praise of indirect consequences