In A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit focuses on the occurrences of the aftermaths of five major North American disasters and how strong bonds within communities form because of those disasters. Each case study provides a concrete description of what surviving residents themselves understand to be an unusual sociological change arising in the midst of casualties, disorientation, homelessness, and significant loss of all kinds. Reflecting on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; the enormous 1917 explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the devastating 1985 Mexico City quake; Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks; and Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 deluge of New Orleans, Solnit brings a new perspective to these heart-wrenching tragedies. Solnit tells many enlightening stories of altruism and courageous social action. Moreover, although providing insight on these tragedies, Solnit presents her case with a redundant political bias and can seem to show problems that were not there. The book proves that a sense of communal unity arises when the lives of many are falling apart. In Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built In Hell, she provides a stunningly paradoxical answer to the question of social transformation, but often creates problems that weren’t necessarily there. In a world of seemingly unrelenting catastrophes, where can one find a justifiable reason for sustainable social change? Solnit provides a strikingly enigmatic answer: right there, at Ground Zero, with the