“Henry David Thoreau occupies two critical positions in the American story, one as an advocate of ‘civil disobedience’ to unjust political authority, and the other as an advocate for nature and its appropriate role in our economic, moral, and spiritual lives. The following is basically a collection of fabulous passages, that I reorganized to give an overview of the book.

The author enriches his reflection by referring to many other authors in a wide variety of fields, such as American literature, environmental ethics, and political theory. Taylor examines the work according to three angles: in chapter 1, he looks at simplicity and the ethics of “voluntary poverty ” in chapter 2, at civil disobedience and the role of “conscience” in democratic politics and in chapter 3, he concentrates on what “ nature” means to us today and whether we can truly learn from it. As Taylor says in his introduction, “ Walden is a central American text for addressing two of the central crises of our time: the increasingly alarming threats we now face to democratic norms, practices, and political institutions, and the perhaps even more alarming environmental dangers confronting us.” With passion and expertise, Bob Pepperman Taylor focuses on Thoreau’s thought in Waldenand Civil Disobedience, and what it means for us today and demands of us. So I read it first to be really ready for this excellent inquiry into Thoreau’s thought. Lessons from Walden focuses also on Civil Disobedience. So when I saw Bob Pepperman Taylor had a book on it, I knew it would be a great way of going deeper into the work and its meaning. I read Waldenby Henry David Thoreau a few years ago. Nonfiction / Political literature criticismĪmerican Political Science Association 2020, Section Award for Best Book in American Political Thought

Thoreau and the Crisis of American Democracy,

The book walden