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This book gathers essays on central themes of Thoreau's life, work and critical reception, by both well-known and emerging scholars.
List of contents
Introduction Kristen Case and K. P. Van Anglen; Part I. Thoreauvian Materialism(s): 1. Thoreau's materialism and twenty-first-century environmentalism Lance Newman; 2. A Free Soiler in his own broad sense: Henry David Thoreau and the Free Soil movement James S. Finley; 3. Emancipation from the 'invisible hand': Thoreau's 'economy of living' Susan E. Gallagher; Part II. The Local Context: 4. Thoreau and Concord's black history Elise Lemire; 5. Red Walden: Thoreau and Native America Joshua David Bellin; 6. 'Beyond all men of his day': T. W. Higginson and Thoreau's legacy in postbellum America Sandra Harbert Petrulionis; 7. 'The nick of time': Thoreau, New England, and America from Early Republic to Civil War Robert A. Gross; Part III. The Global Context: 8. Culture and conflict: Thoreau, Great Britain, and the Civil War Len Gougeon; 9. Transnational Thoreau: time, space, and relativity Paul Giles; 10. Coleridge, Thoreau, and the transatlantic 'riddle of the world' Samantha Celeste Harvey and Rochelle L. Johnson; 11. Hearing animals: Thoreau between fable and elegy Wai Chee Dimock; Part IV. Thoreauvian Cosmos: 12. The value of mutual intelligence: science, poetry, and Thoreau's cosmos Laura Dassow Walls; 13. Disaffiliation as engagement Lawrence Buell; 14. Thoreau and Cavell: unauthorized versions Lawrence Rhu; 15. Thoreau and the new American spirituality Alan D. Hodder; 16. The rooster's philosophy, or the gospel according to this moment Robert D. Richardson.
Summary
This book celebrates Thoreau's life and is written by distinguished scholars. The contributions are aimed at non-academic readers as well as specialists, and they affirm Thoreau's continued relevance today. The book argues that Thoreau was drawn toward empirical, materialist and local, yet also holistic, cosmic and global understandings of nature and experience.
