For Terkel, hope is born of activism, engagement, and a stubborn determination to improve the world. In Hope Dies Last, he talks with a wide range of politically-engaged Americans, musing on fundamental questions: where does hope spring from? How can it sustain us? How does one instil it in others? As well as talking to well-known figures, including Paul Tibbets (pilot of the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima), Sixties activist Tom Hayden and economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Terkel talks to ordinary citizens, such as a death-row inmate pardoned after serving nearly 20 years for a crime he did not commit, a schoolteacher in a tough inner-city high school, and a homeless advocate who points out that 'Some people have the luxury of losing hope. But poor people never lose hope. They can't afford to.' Throughout, he encourages these fascinating people to speak passionately and candidly on their life's work. Hope Dies Last is a celebration of hope in troubled times, an inspiring book about political engagement in the face of indifference.