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The title of Doctorow’s “The Lost Cause” is not immediately understandable outside the USA. It refers to a revisionist historical narrative of the US Civil War, according to which the Southern states had honest motives for seceding from the Union beyond maintaining an economic system based on slavery and racial segregation. While the Lost Cause narrative initially served primarily to paint a heroic picture of secession, it experienced a renewed upswing in the second half of the 20th century in reaction to the US civil rights movement. 

Doctorow takes all of this for granted when he describes the near future in a global warming USA in the year 2050. The book is set in Burbank, California, where Doctorow himself lives, and is classified as ‘solarpunk’ or ‘hopepunk’. An entirely appropriate categorization: for as ruthlessly realistic as the description of a world that has clearly missed the 2-degree target in terms of global warming is, the book nevertheless manages to portray life in this world as hopeful and meaningful.