Hope

A colourful map of the current conflict between pessimism and optimism in Western politics and theory, Hope reveals both the deep history and contemporary necessity of political hopefulness. Starting in the 17th century with Spinoza, Wortham traces the various fallacies and insights of pessimism and optimism through the 18th century, with the help of Kant and Voltaire, to the writings of Nietzsche and 20th-century thinkers such as Benjamin, Arendt, Kristeva, and Fanon.Short chapters enable the reader to follow the story of political optimism, inspiring a new way of thinking about the transformative uses of hopefulness.