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Part of the Mind and American Literature Series.
Explores the
connection between Thoreau's ecological study of nature and his intense
interest in the emerging social sciences, especially the history of
civilization and ethnology. The book first establishes Thoreau's "human
ecology," the relation between the natural sciences and the social
sciences in his thinking, exploring how his reading in contemporary
books about the history of humanity and racial science shaped his
thinking and connecting these emerging anthropological texts to his late
nature writings. It then discusses these connections in his major
works, including Walden and his "reform papers" such as "Civil
Disobedience," the travel narrative A Week on the Concord and Merrimack
Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. The concluding chapter focuses on
Thoreau's attitude toward Manifest Destiny, arguing, against
conventional views, that considering both his life and his writing,
especially the essay "Walking," we must conclude that he both accepted
and endorsed Manifest Destiny as an inevitable result of cultural
succession. This book was reviewed in Thoreau Society Bulletin 296, Winter 2017, p. 10.
Camden House, 2016. Hard Cover, 212 pp., 6 x 9 inch format.
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