America's Bachelor Uncle : Thoreau and the American Polity /

Fellow citizens to remember that they were responsible for independently evaluating the behavior of their government and political community.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Taylor, Bob Pepperman
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, 1996.
Series:Book collections on Project MUSE.
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Online Access:Full text available:
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Description
Summary:Fellow citizens to remember that they were responsible for independently evaluating the behavior of their government and political community.
Understanding of human society, Thoreau is resurrected here as a profound social critic with more on his mind than utopian daydreams. Rather than the aloof and private individualist spurned by conservatives and championed by radicals and environmentalists, Taylor portrays Thoreau as a genuinely engaged political theorist concerned with the moral foundations of public life. Like a solicitous "bachelor uncle" (an allusion to his journals), Thoreau persistently prodded his.
Emphatically revisionist, this book reveals a Thoreau most people never knew existed. Contrary to conventional views, Bob Pepperman Taylor argues that Thoreau was one of America's most powerful and least understood political thinkers, a man who promoted community and democratic values while being ever vigilant against the evils of excessive or illegitimate authority. Still widely perceived as a remarkable nature writer but simplistic philosopher with no real.
Physical Description:1 online resource (192 pages).
ISBN:9780700631261
Access:Open Access