Title: America's bachelor uncle
First published: 1996
Description: 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.
Subjects: History, Politics and literature, National characteristics, American, in literature, Political and social views, Américains dans la littérature, Histoire, Politique et littérature, Politisches Denken, Pensée politique et sociale, Thoreau, henry david, 1817-1862, United states, politics and government, 1815-1861
Places: United States
People: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PS3057.P64 T39 1996