Structure

Hope in the Dark is arranged into 21 short chapters, after which follows three brief reflections written after the original publication of the book in 2004. Some chapters share similar titles so that the reader considers them as a unit, such as the five chapters that all begin with the title "The Millennium Arrives." Other chapters share similarities of scale, such as the chapter titled "Doubt," which focuses on the fraught political climate of the United States, and the chapter immediately following, "Journey to the Center of the World," in which Solnit provides a hopeful and intimate glimpse at her own activist life in San Francisco, California.

While Solnit will often refer to events of the deep and more recent past, the book does not follow a cohesive narrative. Instead, Solnit jumps around from one moment in time to another, usually to illustrate how one revolution or movement can...