I enjoyed reading Rebecca Solnit's book 'Hope in the Dark' a year or so ago, and so was interested recently to come across a more recent piece of writing..The Secret Library of Hope - 12 Books to Stiffen Your Resolve. In this she says:
'There are a handful of books that I think of as "the secret library of hope." None of them deny the awful things going on, but they approach them as if the future is still open to intervention rather than an inevitability. In describing how the world actually gets changed, they give us the tools to change it again.'
The list covers books from William Morris's 'News from Nowhere' to the more recent 'The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People;' by Jonathan Schell
Her article concludes that 'In ceasing the scramble for things, there would be real gains; we’d gain back time for sitting around talking at leisure about politics and the neighbors, for wandering around on foot — and for reading. But you don’t have to wait for everything to change: change it yourself by seizing these pleasures now.'
