America's bachelor uncle : Thoreau and the American polity / Bob Pepperman Taylor.
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 bei...
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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via JSTOR) |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Lawrence :
University Press of Kansas,
©1996.
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| Series: | American political thought.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | 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. 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. Fellow citizens to remember that they were responsible for independently evaluating the behavior of their government and political community. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xi, 180 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-175) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780700631261 0700631267 |