RaveThe New York Journal of BooksThe essays here cover enormous territory, but the distance between, say, the homeless now in San Francisco...and Acoma Pueblo warriors of the 16th century...is bridged by Solnit’s dedication to storytelling, to sharing a lexicon that galvanizes belief in amelioration ... Solnit reminds us that precision and clarity in language matter \'as gestures of respect,\' a deceptively simple recognition that could be used to fortify civil discourse. She motivates with an idea that was once axiomatic: We are only as good as our word ... Solnit’s rhetorical style reflects a leviathan curiosity and a palpable pleasure in thinking things through. Her idiosyncratic lists and complex tropes are sometimes long runways for liftoffs or landings of big ideas. She’s in the business of linking ... No essay in Call Them by Their True Names is without its gems; each one uses the author’s panoramic reading in history, science, and philosophy to encourage readers’ close examination.
