Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: A Paradise Built in Hell

For our February, 2026 meeting we will be reading and discussing the first three chapters of  A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit (Amazon) (Alibris).  For our March meeting we will finish the book.

The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster's grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Our first book was  Doughnut Economics, and our most recent books were What's Left - 3 Paths Through the Planetary Crisis, The Age of Insecurity and Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals. For the rest of our reading list see here.