A.F. Borghesani
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199213603
- eISBN:
- 9780191707421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213603.003.0020
- Subject:
- Physics, Condensed Matter Physics / Materials
This chapter reports the small number of experiments on the ion mobility in liquid 3He at intermediate temperatures between the critical point at Tc=3.3 K and T=1 K. The inadequacy of the theoretical ...
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This chapter reports the small number of experiments on the ion mobility in liquid 3He at intermediate temperatures between the critical point at Tc=3.3 K and T=1 K. The inadequacy of the theoretical description in this cross-over region is pointed out.Less
This chapter reports the small number of experiments on the ion mobility in liquid 3He at intermediate temperatures between the critical point at Tc=3.3 K and T=1 K. The inadequacy of the theoretical description in this cross-over region is pointed out.
John Gatta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195165050
- eISBN:
- 9780199835140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195165055.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
Walden Pond, the obvious focal point of Thoreau’s worship and spiritual discovery, qualifies thereby as a sacred place in the author’s celebrated account of “where he lived.” Thoreau’s ...
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Walden Pond, the obvious focal point of Thoreau’s worship and spiritual discovery, qualifies thereby as a sacred place in the author’s celebrated account of “where he lived.” Thoreau’s place-centered spirituality is both active and contemplative, with the contemplative dimension vividly conveyed through his description of morning meditation in the chapter “Sounds.” Thoreau, despite his elusive and inconsistent theology, sometimes confirms belief in a personal Deity and typically envisions nature as a divine Creation. In the famous sandbank cosmogony that appears at the climax of the chapter “Spring,” Thoreau combines a numinous vision of continuous creation with an evolutionary dynamic informed by recent scientific discoveries in biology, geography, and geology. Thoreau imagined nature’s wildness, which enables us to “witness our own limits transgressed,” as wedded thereby to our sense of the sacred.Less
Walden Pond, the obvious focal point of Thoreau’s worship and spiritual discovery, qualifies thereby as a sacred place in the author’s celebrated account of “where he lived.” Thoreau’s place-centered spirituality is both active and contemplative, with the contemplative dimension vividly conveyed through his description of morning meditation in the chapter “Sounds.” Thoreau, despite his elusive and inconsistent theology, sometimes confirms belief in a personal Deity and typically envisions nature as a divine Creation. In the famous sandbank cosmogony that appears at the climax of the chapter “Spring,” Thoreau combines a numinous vision of continuous creation with an evolutionary dynamic informed by recent scientific discoveries in biology, geography, and geology. Thoreau imagined nature’s wildness, which enables us to “witness our own limits transgressed,” as wedded thereby to our sense of the sacred.
Joshua Kotin
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691196541
- eISBN:
- 9781400887866
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691196541.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter concerns the pedagogy of Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854). When Thoreau moved to Walden Pond on July 4, 1845, his goal was to maximize his independence. America, from his perspective, ...
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This chapter concerns the pedagogy of Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854). When Thoreau moved to Walden Pond on July 4, 1845, his goal was to maximize his independence. America, from his perspective, had failed. To maximize his independence, Thoreau radically reduced the size of his world. He minimized his social and financial obligations, and chose to live in an artificially circumscribed environment. He also developed a practice of writing and rewriting that refined his perception of his environment. Writing became an instrument of attentiveness and suppression—a way to improve his vision and restrict its range. At Walden and in Walden there was little or no conflict between receptivity and sovereignty. Thoreau could be open to his surroundings and in control—vulnerable and secure. This was the beginning of Thoreau's utopia of one: a world small enough to be received in its entirety.Less
This chapter concerns the pedagogy of Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854). When Thoreau moved to Walden Pond on July 4, 1845, his goal was to maximize his independence. America, from his perspective, had failed. To maximize his independence, Thoreau radically reduced the size of his world. He minimized his social and financial obligations, and chose to live in an artificially circumscribed environment. He also developed a practice of writing and rewriting that refined his perception of his environment. Writing became an instrument of attentiveness and suppression—a way to improve his vision and restrict its range. At Walden and in Walden there was little or no conflict between receptivity and sovereignty. Thoreau could be open to his surroundings and in control—vulnerable and secure. This was the beginning of Thoreau's utopia of one: a world small enough to be received in its entirety.
Michael T. Gilmore
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195157765
- eISBN:
- 9780199787784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195157765.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter considers some of the classics of 19th-century American literature: Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Thoreau’s Walden, and James’s The American. These canonical ...
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This chapter considers some of the classics of 19th-century American literature: Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Thoreau’s Walden, and James’s The American. These canonical works toy with the edict of knowability, but unlike popular genres, they ultimately reject complete revelation as an illusion. Their protagonists gravitate to inscrutability and hide in plain sight.Less
This chapter considers some of the classics of 19th-century American literature: Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Thoreau’s Walden, and James’s The American. These canonical works toy with the edict of knowability, but unlike popular genres, they ultimately reject complete revelation as an illusion. Their protagonists gravitate to inscrutability and hide in plain sight.
Maurice S. Lee
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199797578
- eISBN:
- 9780199932412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199797578.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter focuses on the radical empiricism of Walden, Thoreau’s journals, and his later scientific writings. As an artist, philosopher, surveyor, fisherman, and naturalist, Thoreau comes to ...
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This chapter focuses on the radical empiricism of Walden, Thoreau’s journals, and his later scientific writings. As an artist, philosopher, surveyor, fisherman, and naturalist, Thoreau comes to accept the uncertainty of chance and its imperatives for the conduct of life, even as—like John Ruskin, Charles Darwin, and William James—he engages in the probabilistic management of nature. Thoreau learns over the course of his career that natural science is not strictly a positivist enterprise but, rather, a probabilistic pursuit in which to measure under conditions of chance is not precisely to know. Thoreau’s disciplined commitments to the handling of chance distance him from the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and help him bridge the worrisome divide between his science and art.Less
This chapter focuses on the radical empiricism of Walden, Thoreau’s journals, and his later scientific writings. As an artist, philosopher, surveyor, fisherman, and naturalist, Thoreau comes to accept the uncertainty of chance and its imperatives for the conduct of life, even as—like John Ruskin, Charles Darwin, and William James—he engages in the probabilistic management of nature. Thoreau learns over the course of his career that natural science is not strictly a positivist enterprise but, rather, a probabilistic pursuit in which to measure under conditions of chance is not precisely to know. Thoreau’s disciplined commitments to the handling of chance distance him from the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and help him bridge the worrisome divide between his science and art.
Austin Woolrych
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198227526
- eISBN:
- 9780191678738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198227526.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
During the final stages of the Civil War and the first few months of uneasy peace, parliamentary politics became more strife-ridden, and the strife was waged increasingly between Presbyterians and ...
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During the final stages of the Civil War and the first few months of uneasy peace, parliamentary politics became more strife-ridden, and the strife was waged increasingly between Presbyterians and Independents. The debate in the House on February 17 about disbandment made the axe fall first on the New Model Army. Even though the Presbyterians issued a warning that past military services conferred no right to address parliament on its conduct of public affairs, this did occur later when A Warning for all the Counties of England appeared on the bookstalls. Parliamentary commissioners, who were still in Saffron Walden, were outraged to find several copies in their inn. The commissioners ordered all officers who were not willing to serve under the terms offered to return to their regiments, and invited those who were willing to come. Thus the split within the army widened with the divisions over responses to parliamentary pressures.Less
During the final stages of the Civil War and the first few months of uneasy peace, parliamentary politics became more strife-ridden, and the strife was waged increasingly between Presbyterians and Independents. The debate in the House on February 17 about disbandment made the axe fall first on the New Model Army. Even though the Presbyterians issued a warning that past military services conferred no right to address parliament on its conduct of public affairs, this did occur later when A Warning for all the Counties of England appeared on the bookstalls. Parliamentary commissioners, who were still in Saffron Walden, were outraged to find several copies in their inn. The commissioners ordered all officers who were not willing to serve under the terms offered to return to their regiments, and invited those who were willing to come. Thus the split within the army widened with the divisions over responses to parliamentary pressures.
Jonathan McKenzie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166308
- eISBN:
- 9780813166384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166308.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Thoreau’s Walden Pond experience is, at least in part, an individualistic response to the popular communal living experiments of the 1840s in the United States. This chapter examines one key aspect ...
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Thoreau’s Walden Pond experience is, at least in part, an individualistic response to the popular communal living experiments of the 1840s in the United States. This chapter examines one key aspect of those experiments—the desire to unify the self—in light of Thoreau’s successes and failures in his own living experiment. This chapter argues that Thoreau’s privatist political theory, which provides the backbone for the Walden sojourn, aids Thoreau in maintaining the goal of providing a sound foundation for a unified experience of selfhood in the changing nineteenth century.Less
Thoreau’s Walden Pond experience is, at least in part, an individualistic response to the popular communal living experiments of the 1840s in the United States. This chapter examines one key aspect of those experiments—the desire to unify the self—in light of Thoreau’s successes and failures in his own living experiment. This chapter argues that Thoreau’s privatist political theory, which provides the backbone for the Walden sojourn, aids Thoreau in maintaining the goal of providing a sound foundation for a unified experience of selfhood in the changing nineteenth century.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846314698
- eISBN:
- 9781846316142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846314698.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter presents some final thoughts. Kinsella talks about his increasing focus on the block of stony ground on a hillside he has always considered his home place — the land of the Ballardong ...
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This chapter presents some final thoughts. Kinsella talks about his increasing focus on the block of stony ground on a hillside he has always considered his home place — the land of the Ballardong Nyungar people. He also considers considers Walden and the politics of visitations, which comes from the chapter entitled ‘Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors’.Less
This chapter presents some final thoughts. Kinsella talks about his increasing focus on the block of stony ground on a hillside he has always considered his home place — the land of the Ballardong Nyungar people. He also considers considers Walden and the politics of visitations, which comes from the chapter entitled ‘Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors’.
Patrick Chura
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034935
- eISBN:
- 9780813038278
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034935.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Henry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. This book ...
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Henry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. This book analyzes this seeming contradiction to show how the best surveyor in Concord combined civil engineering with civil disobedience. Placing Thoreau's surveying in historical context, the book explains the cultural and ideological implications of surveying work in the mid-nineteenth century. It explains the ways in which Thoreau's environmentalist disposition and philosophical convictions asserted themselves, even as he reduced the land to measurable terms and acted as an agent for bringing it under proprietary control. The book also describes in detail Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond. By identifying the origins of Walden in—of all places—surveying data, the book re-creates a previously lost supporting manuscript of this American classic.Less
Henry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. This book analyzes this seeming contradiction to show how the best surveyor in Concord combined civil engineering with civil disobedience. Placing Thoreau's surveying in historical context, the book explains the cultural and ideological implications of surveying work in the mid-nineteenth century. It explains the ways in which Thoreau's environmentalist disposition and philosophical convictions asserted themselves, even as he reduced the land to measurable terms and acted as an agent for bringing it under proprietary control. The book also describes in detail Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond. By identifying the origins of Walden in—of all places—surveying data, the book re-creates a previously lost supporting manuscript of this American classic.
Denis Donoghue
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300107814
- eISBN:
- 9780300133783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300107814.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter offers a reading of Henry David Thoreau's novel Walden. It discusses the claim that this novel is a pastoral or a pastoral romance and that Thoreau was no less interested in society than ...
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This chapter offers a reading of Henry David Thoreau's novel Walden. It discusses the claim that this novel is a pastoral or a pastoral romance and that Thoreau was no less interested in society than in nature. It discusses how Thoreau was influenced by intense awareness of the social and cultural costs of the transition to industrial capitalism in writing this novel during his so-called Walden experiment of solitary life.Less
This chapter offers a reading of Henry David Thoreau's novel Walden. It discusses the claim that this novel is a pastoral or a pastoral romance and that Thoreau was no less interested in society than in nature. It discusses how Thoreau was influenced by intense awareness of the social and cultural costs of the transition to industrial capitalism in writing this novel during his so-called Walden experiment of solitary life.
Joel Porte
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300104462
- eISBN:
- 9780300130577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300104462.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter examines the claim that Henry Thoreau's Walden experiment was prompted by antisocial tendencies. It explains that this experiment was an attempt to live a solitary life and which created ...
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This chapter examines the claim that Henry Thoreau's Walden experiment was prompted by antisocial tendencies. It explains that this experiment was an attempt to live a solitary life and which created an image of Thoreau as the celebrated hermit of Walden Pond. It argues that wanting to be alone was not simply and totally the substance of Thoreau's desire, but that is the reputation that has stuck to him and one that performs a certain kind of cultural work.Less
This chapter examines the claim that Henry Thoreau's Walden experiment was prompted by antisocial tendencies. It explains that this experiment was an attempt to live a solitary life and which created an image of Thoreau as the celebrated hermit of Walden Pond. It argues that wanting to be alone was not simply and totally the substance of Thoreau's desire, but that is the reputation that has stuck to him and one that performs a certain kind of cultural work.
Patrick Chura
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034935
- eISBN:
- 9780813038278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034935.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter discusses Henry David Thoreau's surveying career. To analyze nineteenth-century land surveying is to study Henry Thoreau's primary nonliterary pursuit, an activity that took up a large ...
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This chapter discusses Henry David Thoreau's surveying career. To analyze nineteenth-century land surveying is to study Henry Thoreau's primary nonliterary pursuit, an activity that took up a large portion of his adult life. Thoreau actually made the Walden survey, a three-dimensional pond map that is now one of the most important images in American literary history. The pond survey was a rare type of work, an experiential episode in Thoreau's life the processes of which are now somewhat hard to imagine.Less
This chapter discusses Henry David Thoreau's surveying career. To analyze nineteenth-century land surveying is to study Henry Thoreau's primary nonliterary pursuit, an activity that took up a large portion of his adult life. Thoreau actually made the Walden survey, a three-dimensional pond map that is now one of the most important images in American literary history. The pond survey was a rare type of work, an experiential episode in Thoreau's life the processes of which are now somewhat hard to imagine.
Patrick Chura
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034935
- eISBN:
- 9780813038278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034935.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The first superintendent of the Coast Survey was Swiss-born mathematician Ferdinand Hassler, who directed the project from its inception in 1816 until his death in 1843. Hassler was one of the most ...
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The first superintendent of the Coast Survey was Swiss-born mathematician Ferdinand Hassler, who directed the project from its inception in 1816 until his death in 1843. Hassler was one of the most skillful measurers in history and the ingenious method he conceived for implementing the vast survey was his greatest achievement. He devised a plan to measure the Atlantic seaboard by laying out a network of enormous consecutive triangles, the sides of which ranged from ten to sixty miles in length. Admiring descriptions of the Coast Survey appeared frequently in scientific journals and popular literature during the period immediately prior to Henry Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond.Less
The first superintendent of the Coast Survey was Swiss-born mathematician Ferdinand Hassler, who directed the project from its inception in 1816 until his death in 1843. Hassler was one of the most skillful measurers in history and the ingenious method he conceived for implementing the vast survey was his greatest achievement. He devised a plan to measure the Atlantic seaboard by laying out a network of enormous consecutive triangles, the sides of which ranged from ten to sixty miles in length. Admiring descriptions of the Coast Survey appeared frequently in scientific journals and popular literature during the period immediately prior to Henry Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond.
Michelle Devereaux
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474446044
- eISBN:
- 9781474476652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474446044.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter analyses the ideological framework of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book. This film addresses various Romantic conceptions of ...
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This chapter analyses the ideological framework of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book. This film addresses various Romantic conceptions of childhood, personal and cultural history, and the natural world in relation to the self and subjectivity. In his reimagining of Dahl’s story, Anderson exhibits a disdain for the mechanization of the societal landscape and the beings inhabiting it, similar to a course charted by Henry David Thoreau in Walden, while also optimistically suggesting that animal/human ‘nature’ can still survive through aesthetic and ideological compromise and creative genius. Anderson creates a brand of ideological pastoralism to match the aesthetic pastoralism/picturesque of many of his film worlds. While the anxiety portrayed in his earlier films remains, it is somewhat defused by an anarchic yet collaborative spirit.Less
This chapter analyses the ideological framework of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book. This film addresses various Romantic conceptions of childhood, personal and cultural history, and the natural world in relation to the self and subjectivity. In his reimagining of Dahl’s story, Anderson exhibits a disdain for the mechanization of the societal landscape and the beings inhabiting it, similar to a course charted by Henry David Thoreau in Walden, while also optimistically suggesting that animal/human ‘nature’ can still survive through aesthetic and ideological compromise and creative genius. Anderson creates a brand of ideological pastoralism to match the aesthetic pastoralism/picturesque of many of his film worlds. While the anxiety portrayed in his earlier films remains, it is somewhat defused by an anarchic yet collaborative spirit.
Jon Burlingame
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199863303
- eISBN:
- 9780199979981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199863303.003.0019
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
John Barry's successor was American-born, London-based Michael Kamen, whose recent success as composer of action films Lethal Weapon and Die Hard (and his understanding of contemporary rock, having ...
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John Barry's successor was American-born, London-based Michael Kamen, whose recent success as composer of action films Lethal Weapon and Die Hard (and his understanding of contemporary rock, having worked with Eric Clapton, Queen and Pink Floyd) made him perfect for the job. Music supervisor Joel Sill suggested Kamen, and later recruited producer Narada Michael Walden to co-write a title song for R&B legend Gladys Knight; he also recruited top film songwriter Diane Warren to write an end-title song for Patti LaBelle. Kamen did not enjoy the experience; his planned collaboration with Eric Clapton and original “Bond Theme” guitarist Vic Flick failed, and his own attempts at a title song were not taken seriously. The Knight song performed well in the U.K., but the end-title song actually had much more success three years later when Celine Dion recorded a cover of it and it reached no. 4 in the U.S.Less
John Barry's successor was American-born, London-based Michael Kamen, whose recent success as composer of action films Lethal Weapon and Die Hard (and his understanding of contemporary rock, having worked with Eric Clapton, Queen and Pink Floyd) made him perfect for the job. Music supervisor Joel Sill suggested Kamen, and later recruited producer Narada Michael Walden to co-write a title song for R&B legend Gladys Knight; he also recruited top film songwriter Diane Warren to write an end-title song for Patti LaBelle. Kamen did not enjoy the experience; his planned collaboration with Eric Clapton and original “Bond Theme” guitarist Vic Flick failed, and his own attempts at a title song were not taken seriously. The Knight song performed well in the U.K., but the end-title song actually had much more success three years later when Celine Dion recorded a cover of it and it reached no. 4 in the U.S.
Stephen Rippon
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198759379
- eISBN:
- 9780191917059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198759379.003.0016
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology
By the fourth century AD, the landscape of Roman Britain was densely settled and archaeological surveys and excavations have consistently shown that most lowland ...
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By the fourth century AD, the landscape of Roman Britain was densely settled and archaeological surveys and excavations have consistently shown that most lowland areas supported farming communities, including on the heavier claylands (Smith et al. 2016). Thereafter the character of the archaeological record changes dramatically with the appearance of settlements, cemeteries, and material culture whose ‘Anglo-Saxon’ cultural affinities lay in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia (Chapters 8–9). All too often, however, ‘Anglo-Saxon’ England is discussed in a way that implies that settlements characterized by Grubenhäuser and cemeteries furnished with Germanic grave goods were characteristic of the whole of eastern England (e.g. Welch 1992; Lucy 2000; Tipper 2004; Hamerow 2012), whereas detailed local studies have suggested that this was not the case. In areas such as Sussex (Welch 1983) and Lincolnshire (Green 2012) evidence for Anglo-Saxon colonization has only been found in certain parts of the landscape, and the potential reasons for ‘blank’ spots in the distribution of Anglo-Saxon settlement are complex: they may in part simply reflect areas where there has been less archaeological investigation, or that these areas were unattractive for settlement. There is, however, another possibility: that these distributions are not a record of where people were and were not living, but a reflection of how the cultural identity of early medieval communities varied from area to area, and that some of these identities are archaeologically less visible than others. There has long been speculation that at least some of the ‘blank areas’ in the distributions of Anglo-Saxon settlements and cemeteries reflect the places where native British populations remained in control of the landscape. West (1985, 168), for example, noted the lack of early Anglo-Saxon settlement on the East Anglian claylands, and speculated that this is where a substantial Romano- British population remained: ‘did they survive somehow, perhaps in a basically aceramic condition, or were they, in the main, drawn to the new settlements on the lighter soils to become slaves or some subordinate stratum of society, as indicated by later documentary evidence, or was the population drastically reduced by pestilence or genocide?’ (West 1985, 168).
Less
By the fourth century AD, the landscape of Roman Britain was densely settled and archaeological surveys and excavations have consistently shown that most lowland areas supported farming communities, including on the heavier claylands (Smith et al. 2016). Thereafter the character of the archaeological record changes dramatically with the appearance of settlements, cemeteries, and material culture whose ‘Anglo-Saxon’ cultural affinities lay in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia (Chapters 8–9). All too often, however, ‘Anglo-Saxon’ England is discussed in a way that implies that settlements characterized by Grubenhäuser and cemeteries furnished with Germanic grave goods were characteristic of the whole of eastern England (e.g. Welch 1992; Lucy 2000; Tipper 2004; Hamerow 2012), whereas detailed local studies have suggested that this was not the case. In areas such as Sussex (Welch 1983) and Lincolnshire (Green 2012) evidence for Anglo-Saxon colonization has only been found in certain parts of the landscape, and the potential reasons for ‘blank’ spots in the distribution of Anglo-Saxon settlement are complex: they may in part simply reflect areas where there has been less archaeological investigation, or that these areas were unattractive for settlement. There is, however, another possibility: that these distributions are not a record of where people were and were not living, but a reflection of how the cultural identity of early medieval communities varied from area to area, and that some of these identities are archaeologically less visible than others. There has long been speculation that at least some of the ‘blank areas’ in the distributions of Anglo-Saxon settlements and cemeteries reflect the places where native British populations remained in control of the landscape. West (1985, 168), for example, noted the lack of early Anglo-Saxon settlement on the East Anglian claylands, and speculated that this is where a substantial Romano- British population remained: ‘did they survive somehow, perhaps in a basically aceramic condition, or were they, in the main, drawn to the new settlements on the lighter soils to become slaves or some subordinate stratum of society, as indicated by later documentary evidence, or was the population drastically reduced by pestilence or genocide?’ (West 1985, 168).
Stephen Rippon
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198759379
- eISBN:
- 9780191917059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198759379.003.0018
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology
In the past the study of early medieval kingdoms has mostly been a singledisciplinary activity based upon the extremely limited documentary sources, with boundaries ...
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In the past the study of early medieval kingdoms has mostly been a singledisciplinary activity based upon the extremely limited documentary sources, with boundaries back-projected from much later evidence (e.g. Bailey 1989, fig. 8.1). What is presented in this study, in contrast, is an attempt to have a more archaeologically and landscape-based discussion that includes using the distributions of cultural indicators such as artefact types, architectural forms, burial practices, and the locations of particular sites that appear to have been positioned in liminal locations. Three phases in the development of these kingdoms can be distinguished: • The fifth to sixth centuries (emergent kingdoms): the period of Grubenhäuser and Anglo-Saxon burials associated with a suite of material culture showing marked regional affinities. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existed by the end of this period, and a broad consensus has emerged that they were formed through the amalgamation of a series of smaller regiones (e.g. Arnold 1988; Bassett 1989a; Yorke 1990; Scull 1993; 1999; Harrington and Welch 2014). This model—which Bassett (1989b) has compared to a football knock-out competition—is, however, based largely upon the fragmentary and very partial documentary record (see Chapter 7), and it does not explain the close correspondence of the boundaries between the fifth- to sixth-century socio-economic zones spheres identified here and those of the Iron Age and Roman periods. • The seventh and eighth centuries (mature kingdoms): a new suite of material culture (e.g. East Anglian and East Saxon coinage, and Ipswich Ware) whose circulation in part appears to have been restricted to the polities within which they were produced. The authority of the East Saxon kings had started to decline during the latter part of this period, although East Anglia survived. • The ninth century (the declining kingdoms): the East Saxon kingdom virtually disappeared and become a territory within Wessex. The distributions of later eighth- and ninth-century inscribed coinage, and distinctive artefact types such as silver wire inlaid strap ends, suggest that the East Anglian socio-economic sphere, and the kingdom that was based upon it, survived within the same boundaries that had emerged by the fifth and sixth centuries until it was overrun by the Danes in the 870s.
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In the past the study of early medieval kingdoms has mostly been a singledisciplinary activity based upon the extremely limited documentary sources, with boundaries back-projected from much later evidence (e.g. Bailey 1989, fig. 8.1). What is presented in this study, in contrast, is an attempt to have a more archaeologically and landscape-based discussion that includes using the distributions of cultural indicators such as artefact types, architectural forms, burial practices, and the locations of particular sites that appear to have been positioned in liminal locations. Three phases in the development of these kingdoms can be distinguished: • The fifth to sixth centuries (emergent kingdoms): the period of Grubenhäuser and Anglo-Saxon burials associated with a suite of material culture showing marked regional affinities. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existed by the end of this period, and a broad consensus has emerged that they were formed through the amalgamation of a series of smaller regiones (e.g. Arnold 1988; Bassett 1989a; Yorke 1990; Scull 1993; 1999; Harrington and Welch 2014). This model—which Bassett (1989b) has compared to a football knock-out competition—is, however, based largely upon the fragmentary and very partial documentary record (see Chapter 7), and it does not explain the close correspondence of the boundaries between the fifth- to sixth-century socio-economic zones spheres identified here and those of the Iron Age and Roman periods. • The seventh and eighth centuries (mature kingdoms): a new suite of material culture (e.g. East Anglian and East Saxon coinage, and Ipswich Ware) whose circulation in part appears to have been restricted to the polities within which they were produced. The authority of the East Saxon kings had started to decline during the latter part of this period, although East Anglia survived. • The ninth century (the declining kingdoms): the East Saxon kingdom virtually disappeared and become a territory within Wessex. The distributions of later eighth- and ninth-century inscribed coinage, and distinctive artefact types such as silver wire inlaid strap ends, suggest that the East Anglian socio-economic sphere, and the kingdom that was based upon it, survived within the same boundaries that had emerged by the fifth and sixth centuries until it was overrun by the Danes in the 870s.
Edward F. Mooney
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823264995
- eISBN:
- 9780823266876
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823264995.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In “Reflections from Thoreau’s Concord,” Edward F. Mooney turns to the concrete experience of living itself in order to reflect on “Creation, on being a creature among others in creation, and on the ...
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In “Reflections from Thoreau’s Concord,” Edward F. Mooney turns to the concrete experience of living itself in order to reflect on “Creation, on being a creature among others in creation, and on the role of creativity as a vector animating creatures and creation.” How, in reading Thoreau’s words, do we think with him and converse with him? When we follow him through the places he inhabited and visited, to what extent do we too become residents or travelers in these locales?Less
In “Reflections from Thoreau’s Concord,” Edward F. Mooney turns to the concrete experience of living itself in order to reflect on “Creation, on being a creature among others in creation, and on the role of creativity as a vector animating creatures and creation.” How, in reading Thoreau’s words, do we think with him and converse with him? When we follow him through the places he inhabited and visited, to what extent do we too become residents or travelers in these locales?
Richard Higgins and Richard Higgins
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520294042
- eISBN:
- 9780520967311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520294042.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Trees stirred the muse in Thoreau. He saw them as poems themselves, “living poetry,” writ by nature on the landscape. He “browsed” his poetic imagination on them and used the forest as a source of ...
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Trees stirred the muse in Thoreau. He saw them as poems themselves, “living poetry,” writ by nature on the landscape. He “browsed” his poetic imagination on them and used the forest as a source of figurative language in which to dip his pen. He said pines and maples encircled Walden Pond like “slender eye-lashes” fringing earth’s “liquid eye.” By moonlight, the shadows of trees checker the ground “like chandeliers of darkness.” The blazing fall sermons of maple trees surpass those of New England ministers. Thoreau also frequently imagined trees as the different kinds of writing—as the leaves of a book, mythic tablets, scrolls, sermons and inscriptions.Less
Trees stirred the muse in Thoreau. He saw them as poems themselves, “living poetry,” writ by nature on the landscape. He “browsed” his poetic imagination on them and used the forest as a source of figurative language in which to dip his pen. He said pines and maples encircled Walden Pond like “slender eye-lashes” fringing earth’s “liquid eye.” By moonlight, the shadows of trees checker the ground “like chandeliers of darkness.” The blazing fall sermons of maple trees surpass those of New England ministers. Thoreau also frequently imagined trees as the different kinds of writing—as the leaves of a book, mythic tablets, scrolls, sermons and inscriptions.
Michael T. Gilmore
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226294131
- eISBN:
- 9780226294155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226294155.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Henry David Thoreau, who went to jail for his beliefs, is an invaluable witness from the 1840s. Thoreau's belief in the power of oratory to move multitudes preceded and came after the publication of ...
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Henry David Thoreau, who went to jail for his beliefs, is an invaluable witness from the 1840s. Thoreau's belief in the power of oratory to move multitudes preceded and came after the publication of Walden, but the greatest of his writings does not share that confidence. The account of his life at the Pond self-consciously narrows its appeal from the imperfect but educable audience of 1849 to the handful still capable of understanding him in the early 1850s. This chapter proposes reasons that the inevitable overlapping of the political with the aesthetic at a time when words, the lifeblood of literature, were under extreme duress from institutional and consensual forces. Parallels with Abraham Lincoln's career suggest that Thoreau's avoidance or withdrawal from civic issues in Walden, mostly written in these years, was implicated in the republic's political impasse. He recoiled from his country, and the possibility of awakening it, because the country seemed to have subsided into quiescence over slavery. Thoreau did not give up during this period, any more than Lincoln did, and the dormant social dimension of his thought surged back to prominence just at the moment he completed his masterpiece.Less
Henry David Thoreau, who went to jail for his beliefs, is an invaluable witness from the 1840s. Thoreau's belief in the power of oratory to move multitudes preceded and came after the publication of Walden, but the greatest of his writings does not share that confidence. The account of his life at the Pond self-consciously narrows its appeal from the imperfect but educable audience of 1849 to the handful still capable of understanding him in the early 1850s. This chapter proposes reasons that the inevitable overlapping of the political with the aesthetic at a time when words, the lifeblood of literature, were under extreme duress from institutional and consensual forces. Parallels with Abraham Lincoln's career suggest that Thoreau's avoidance or withdrawal from civic issues in Walden, mostly written in these years, was implicated in the republic's political impasse. He recoiled from his country, and the possibility of awakening it, because the country seemed to have subsided into quiescence over slavery. Thoreau did not give up during this period, any more than Lincoln did, and the dormant social dimension of his thought surged back to prominence just at the moment he completed his masterpiece.