Thoreau on Freedom

Here Thoreau's thoughts on freedom, which ring as true today as they did 150 years ago, have been gathered in a single volume., Although best known as America's first environmental philosopher, Henry David Thoreau left a broad legacy of writings on a variety of topics. Writing at a time when the issue of slavery was tearing our young nation apart, Thoreau, like his contemporary Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote passionately about freedom for the slaves, as well as about his views on the Fugitive Slave Act and on the abolitionist John Brown. Applying the tenets of transcendentalism, Thoreau also wrote more broadly about society's lack of freedom, resulting from a consuming commitment to work and to other self-imposed limits. Thoreau's thoughts on freedom, which ring as true today as they did 150 years ago, have been gathered in a single volume. Jeffrey Cramer of the Thoreau Institute has edited these selections, with a foreword by Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson.

Jeffrey S. Cramer is the Curator of Collections for the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, placing him in the center of Thoreau studies, with the most comprehensive collection of Thoreau-related materials at his fingertips.