Is democracy hazardous to the health of the environment?

“How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health!” —Henry David Thoreau Since his death in 1862, Henry David Thoreau has left an indelible mark on the American mind. A vocal champion of simple living and social equality, he is revered for his tempered prose, gentle words, and wise observations. His most well-known work, Walden, is still read around the world, cherished for both its beautiful writing style and its timeless musings on life, simple living, and nature. Collected in Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World are some of Thoreau’s most impactful musings—drawn from the many writings he completed over his lifetime. His work touched on every aspect of living a harmonious life, from respecting your neighbors, whether human or animal, to the joys of a simplified life, free of clutter and distractions. Thoreau on Nature will undoubtedly be an essential resource for anyone seeking to find peace and balance in life.

Wildness is about going beyond what the world conventionally requires, and touching the mythic dimension of life. This selection of reflections on wildness draws on the riches of Western literature as well as the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition.

Oerlemans extends current eco-critical views by synthesizing a range of viewpoints from the Romantic period.

An unprecedented study of environmentalism, environmental movements, and efforts at "greening" across the globe, written by culturally embedded scholars with both academic expertise and first-hand experience with grassroots advocacy. Protection of our planet, its people, and its natural resources has been a topic of numerous debates in many nations for the past 50 years. Each hemisphere, continent, and country has environmental challenges unique to the region, giving birth to green movements all over the world. Until now, very few resources have compiled the political, scientific, economic, philosophical, and religious viewpoints of these programs in one place. This two-volume work provides a comprehensive collection of the ideas and actions that inform environmentalism, at local, national, and regional levels across the globe. Environmental Movements around the World: Shades of Green in Politics and Culture includes viewpoints from experts in the fields of political science, history, international relations, environmental studies, and sociology that enable readers to compare and contrast different cultures' attitudes and solutions towards environmental issues. Providing both a broad view of international efforts to protect the earth while also spotlighting very specific examples of environmentally motivated strategies, the set explores the political strategies and cultural perspectives behind conservation and environmental activism in countries worldwide.

Transgression and Its Limits is a long overdue collection that reads the complex relationship between artistic transgressions and the limits of law and the subject. In mid-twentieth century theoretical understandings of transgressive culture, it is the existence of the limit that guarantees the possibility and success of the transgression. While the limit calls for obedience, it also tempts with the possibility of violation. To breach the limits of the acceptable is to simultaneously define them. However, this classical understanding of transgression may no longer apply under the conditions of post-modernity, late-capitalism, and the simulated or empty transgressions that this period of the simulacra encourages. Context becomes paramount in reading the myriad forms of transgression that encompass politics, aesthetics and the ethics of the obscene; while a range of theoretical perspectives are employed in order to elucidate the economies at work underneath the seemingly transgressive act. The essays selected include explorations of transgression in cinema, photography, art, law, music, philosophy, technology, and both classical and contemporary literature and drama. Professor Fred Botting’s (co-author of Bataille and The Tarantinian Ethics) analysis of transgression from Bataille, to Baudrillard and Ballard compliments the collection’s concerns about the status of transgression. Aside from fourteen critical essays on topics such as early-modern drama, George Bataille, J. G. Ballard, the female necrophilic, “torture-porn” cinema, and the art of Robert Mapplethorpe and Salvador Dali, there is also a new discussion of transgression between novelist Iain Banks and Professor Roderick Watson (Emeritus at the University of Stirling). With its focus on the paradoxical nature of the impulse to transgress, as well at its wide-ranging historical and artistic concerns, Transgression and Its Limits is a landmark book in a rapidly developing scholarly field.