The Impossible Will Take a Little While

This collection brings together powerful voices from around the world to inspire ordinary citizens to keep working for change in an age of despair.

“A magnificent anthology celebrates hope, guts, and the power of taking action.” —Oprah Magazine

In a world where each day can bring new reasons for outrage or despair, Paul Loeb answers with stories of hope, inspiration, and raw courage from heroes of world-changing political movements. In this comprehensively updated edition, Loeb helps us keep acting for change whatever the odds.

The Impossible Will Take a Little While shows what it's like to go up against Goliath and win—on battlefields from the 2024 South Korean coup, Putin’s prisons, South African apartheid, American slavery, and defeatism about climate change. Authors include Nelson Mandela, Alexei Navalny, Bill McKibben, Diane Ackerman, Jesmyn Ward, Howard Zinn, Heather Cox Richardson, Alice Walker, Sherman Alexie, Vaclav Havel, Paul Hawken, Rutger Bregman, Bill Moyers, Audre Lorde, Mary Pipher, Tony Kushner, Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda, Terry Tempest Williams, Desmond Tutu, and fifty-two other powerful voices.

Without minimizing the obstacles, their stories inspire hope to keep on pushing for what we believe.