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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
Kyle Gann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252040856
- eISBN:
- 9780252099366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040856.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Ives’s “Thoreau” music takes its cue from several passages in Thoreau’s Walden, including a musical depiction of three walking tours that basically circumnavigate Walden Pond from Thoreau’s cabin. ...
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Ives’s “Thoreau” music takes its cue from several passages in Thoreau’s Walden, including a musical depiction of three walking tours that basically circumnavigate Walden Pond from Thoreau’s cabin. Quotations from the Stephen Foster song “Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground” create a political quandary, but the music devolves into a calm ostinato that reflects nature’s unhurried pace. A flute that enters at the end refers to Thoreau’s habit of playing the flute from his boat in Walden Pond.Less
Ives’s “Thoreau” music takes its cue from several passages in Thoreau’s Walden, including a musical depiction of three walking tours that basically circumnavigate Walden Pond from Thoreau’s cabin. Quotations from the Stephen Foster song “Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground” create a political quandary, but the music devolves into a calm ostinato that reflects nature’s unhurried pace. A flute that enters at the end refers to Thoreau’s habit of playing the flute from his boat in Walden Pond.
Nancy L. Rosenblum
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691169439
- eISBN:
- 9781400881314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691169439.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter explains what “minding our own business” means, arguing that minding your neighbors' business and minding your own work is in tandem when it comes to self-examination and transformation. ...
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This chapter explains what “minding our own business” means, arguing that minding your neighbors' business and minding your own work is in tandem when it comes to self-examination and transformation. People listen and observe and then compare their neighbors' lives to their own. From the vantage point as witnesses to their neighbors' lives, people gain insight into their vulnerabilities, moral resources, and the terms of their happiness. Thoreau's Walden is the great American reflection on the quality of life at home, in this place, with these neighbors. Good neighbors emerge in Thoreau's work as essential to self-understanding and care of the self. The chapter also shows how Thoreau presents treating one another as neighbors as the “saving remnant” of democracy in America.Less
This chapter explains what “minding our own business” means, arguing that minding your neighbors' business and minding your own work is in tandem when it comes to self-examination and transformation. People listen and observe and then compare their neighbors' lives to their own. From the vantage point as witnesses to their neighbors' lives, people gain insight into their vulnerabilities, moral resources, and the terms of their happiness. Thoreau's Walden is the great American reflection on the quality of life at home, in this place, with these neighbors. Good neighbors emerge in Thoreau's work as essential to self-understanding and care of the self. The chapter also shows how Thoreau presents treating one another as neighbors as the “saving remnant” of democracy in America.
Carol Boggess
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813174181
- eISBN:
- 9780813174815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813174181.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter tells of why and how James Still entered the Army in March 1942, several months after the US entered World War II. His training began near San Antonio with the 8th Air Depot Group, which ...
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This chapter tells of why and how James Still entered the Army in March 1942, several months after the US entered World War II. His training began near San Antonio with the 8th Air Depot Group, which left New York six months later on a ship headed for the Gold Coast of Africa. Still carried a paperback copy of Walden and kept a diary of the crossing on the margins of the pages. Less
This chapter tells of why and how James Still entered the Army in March 1942, several months after the US entered World War II. His training began near San Antonio with the 8th Air Depot Group, which left New York six months later on a ship headed for the Gold Coast of Africa. Still carried a paperback copy of Walden and kept a diary of the crossing on the margins of the pages.
Alan Hodder
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300089592
- eISBN:
- 9780300129755
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300089592.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
When Henry David Thoreau died in 1862, friends and admirers remembered him as an eccentric man whose outer life was continuously fed by deeper spiritual currents. But scholars have since focused ...
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When Henry David Thoreau died in 1862, friends and admirers remembered him as an eccentric man whose outer life was continuously fed by deeper spiritual currents. But scholars have since focused almost exclusively on Thoreau's literary, political, and scientific contributions. This book offers a study of Thoreau's religious thought and experience. It recovers the lost spiritual dimension of the writer's life, revealing a deeply religious man who, despite his rejection of organized religion, possessed a rich inner life, characterized by a sort of personal, experiential, nature-centered, and eclectic spirituality that finds wider expression in America today. At the heart of Thoreau's life were episodes of exhilaration in nature that he commonly referred to as his ecstasies. The book explores these representations of ecstasy throughout Thoreau's writings—from the riverside reflections of his first book through Walden and the later journals, when he conceived his journal writing as a spiritual discipline in itself and a kind of forum in which to cultivate experiences of contemplative non-attachment. In doing so, it restores to our understanding the deeper spiritual dimension of Thoreau's life to which his writings everywhere bear witness.Less
When Henry David Thoreau died in 1862, friends and admirers remembered him as an eccentric man whose outer life was continuously fed by deeper spiritual currents. But scholars have since focused almost exclusively on Thoreau's literary, political, and scientific contributions. This book offers a study of Thoreau's religious thought and experience. It recovers the lost spiritual dimension of the writer's life, revealing a deeply religious man who, despite his rejection of organized religion, possessed a rich inner life, characterized by a sort of personal, experiential, nature-centered, and eclectic spirituality that finds wider expression in America today. At the heart of Thoreau's life were episodes of exhilaration in nature that he commonly referred to as his ecstasies. The book explores these representations of ecstasy throughout Thoreau's writings—from the riverside reflections of his first book through Walden and the later journals, when he conceived his journal writing as a spiritual discipline in itself and a kind of forum in which to cultivate experiences of contemplative non-attachment. In doing so, it restores to our understanding the deeper spiritual dimension of Thoreau's life to which his writings everywhere bear witness.
Denis Donoghue
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300107814
- eISBN:
- 9780300133783
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300107814.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
How is a classic book to be defined? How much time must elapse before a work may be judged a “classic”? And among all the works of American literature, which deserve the designation? This book ...
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How is a classic book to be defined? How much time must elapse before a work may be judged a “classic”? And among all the works of American literature, which deserve the designation? This book presents a short list of “relative” classics—works whose appeal may not be universal but which nonetheless have occupied an important place in our culture for more than a century. These books have survived the abuses of time—neglect, contempt, indifference, willful readings, excesses of praise and hyperbole. The book bestows the term classic on just five American works: Melville's Moby-Dick, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Thoreau's Walden, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Examining each separately, each chapter discusses how the writings have been received and interpreted, and offers contemporary readings, suggesting, for example, that in the post-9/11 era, Moby-Dick may be rewardingly read as a revenge tragedy. The book extends an irresistible invitation to open the pages of these American classics again, demonstrating with wit and acuity how very much they have to say to us now.Less
How is a classic book to be defined? How much time must elapse before a work may be judged a “classic”? And among all the works of American literature, which deserve the designation? This book presents a short list of “relative” classics—works whose appeal may not be universal but which nonetheless have occupied an important place in our culture for more than a century. These books have survived the abuses of time—neglect, contempt, indifference, willful readings, excesses of praise and hyperbole. The book bestows the term classic on just five American works: Melville's Moby-Dick, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Thoreau's Walden, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Examining each separately, each chapter discusses how the writings have been received and interpreted, and offers contemporary readings, suggesting, for example, that in the post-9/11 era, Moby-Dick may be rewardingly read as a revenge tragedy. The book extends an irresistible invitation to open the pages of these American classics again, demonstrating with wit and acuity how very much they have to say to us now.
