Place of reproduction:
[S.l.]: HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
Reproduction note:
Electronic reproduction
Origination:
Footnote:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-175) and index
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Description:
Emphatically revisionist, this book reveals a Thoreau most people never knew existed. Contrary to conventional views, Bob Pepperman Taylor argues that Thoreau was one of America's most powerful and least understood political thinkers, a man who promoted community and democratic values while being ever vigilant against the evils of excessive or illegitimate authority. Still widely perceived as a remarkable nature writer but simplistic philosopher with no real
Understanding of human society, Thoreau is resurrected here as a profound social critic with more on his mind than utopian daydreams. Rather than the aloof and private individualist spurned by conservatives and championed by radicals and environmentalists, Taylor portrays Thoreau as a genuinely engaged political theorist concerned with the moral foundations of public life. Like a solicitous "bachelor uncle" (an allusion to his journals), Thoreau persistently prodded his
Fellow citizens to remember that they were responsible for independently evaluating the behavior of their government and political community