Since its publication in 1849, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience has influenced protestors, activists and political thinkers all over the world. Including the full text of Thoreau’s essay, The Routledge Guidebook to Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience explores the context of his writing, analyses different interpretations of the text and considers how posthumous edits to Civil Disobedience have altered its intended meaning. It introduces the reader to: the context of Thoreau’s work and the background to his writing the significance of the references and allusions the contemporary reception of Thoreau’s essay the ongoing relevance of the work and a discussion of different perspectives on the work. Providing a detailed analysis which closely examines Thoreau’s original work, this is an essential introduction for students of politics, philosophy and history, and all those seeking a full appreciation of this classic work.

Since its publication in 1849, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience has influenced protestors, activists and political thinkers all over the world. Including the full text of Thoreau’s essay, The Routledge Guidebook to Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience explores the context of his writing, analyses different interpretations of the text and considers how posthumous edits to Civil Disobedience have altered its intended meaning. It introduces the reader to: the context of Thoreau’s work and the background to his writing the significance of the references and allusions the contemporary reception of Thoreau’s essay the ongoing relevance of the work and a discussion of different perspectives on the work. Providing a detailed analysis which closely examines Thoreau’s original work, this is an essential introduction for students of politics, philosophy and history, and all those seeking a full appreciation of this classic work.

In 1848, Henry David Thoreau twice delivered lectures in Concord, Massachusetts, on “the relationship of the individual to the state.” The essay now known as Civil Disobedience is a significant and widely admired contribution to abolitionist literature, as well as an anti-war tract, but Thoreau’s focus is less on political organization and solidarity than it is on personal choice and individual responsibility. Cultivating personal integrity in the face of political injustice is the project Thoreau defends in Civil Disobedience; this focus has made the work highly influential for twentieth- and twenty-first-century political movements. Bob Pepperman Taylor’s new Introduction explains the work’s specific political context, helping readers to understand the text as Thoreau wrote it. The edition also offers a number of historical documents on Thoreau’s abolitionism; the war with Mexico; and Thoreau’s philosophical development in relation to other thinkers.

Gale Researcher Guide for: Henry David Thoreau's Transcendental Prose is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.

In 1849, Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" was published. The ideas he set forth in the essay and in his other writings were so groundbreaking that they influenced towering figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Thoreau's ideas continue to influence peaceful activists today. This book explores the life of Thoreau, his beliefs, his strategies for protest, and the legacy he left behind.

Throughout this original and passionate book, Bob Pepperman Taylor presents a wide-ranging inquiry into the nature and implications of Henry David Thoreau’s thought in Walden and Civil Disobedience. Taylor pursues this inquiry in three chapters, each focusing on a single theme: chapter 1 examines simplicity and the ethics of “voluntary poverty,” chapter 2 looks at civil disobedience and the role of “conscience” in democratic politics, and chapter 3 concentrates on what “nature” means to us today and whether we can truly “learn from nature.” Taylor considers Thoreau’s philosophy, and the philosophical problems he raises, from the perspective of a wide range of thinkers and commentators drawn from history, philosophy, the social sciences, and popular media, breathing new life into Walden and asking how it is alive for us today. In Lessons from Walden, Taylor allows all sides to have their say, even as he persistently steers the discussion back to a nuanced reading of Thoreau’s actual position. With its tone of friendly urgency, this interdisciplinary tour de force will interest students and scholars of American literature, environmental ethics, and political theory, as well as environmental activists, concerned citizens, and anyone troubled with the future of democracy.

Queer Kinship in Sarah Schulman’s AIDS Novels is the first book to extensively discuss the works of Sarah Schulman, a journalist, activist and globally recognized novelist. This research monograph juxtaposes the works about the AIDS epidemic which were well-received by the mainstream America with Schulman’s own output as a “bard of AIDS burnout,” in the words of Edmund White. In contrast with the prevailing representations of the epidemic, her works emphasize the importance of queer kinship, chosen families and AIDS activist groups that fall outside of the heteronorm. Bearing witness to these voluntary collectivities means also surviving the traumatizing experience of ongoing, repeated death and refusing the idea of an easy solution to the crisis. The monograph tracks the tension between the dominant narratives about the epidemic and those articulated from the excluded positions, arguing that Schulman reformulates queer kinship as the locus of social change.