Lessons from "Walden"

"Bob Taylor's Lessons from Walden brings Thoreau's classic text to bear on the present moment, into Trump's America, into an age of environmental degradation, into a time of cultural self-absorption, instrumental rationality, and neoliberal indifference to what is local, communal, and particular." -Shannon Mariotti, author of Thoreau's Democratic Withdrawal

"Lessons from Walden allows Thoreau to enter today's conversation in a way that seldom happens: Bob Taylor's measured and fair-minded mediation allows the fullness of Thoreau's stance to appear to the reader with all his contradictions intact. The result is a true conversation in which Thoreau becomes the springboard to further deliberation. Time and again, Taylor returns to Thoreau as to a moral lodestone, bringing the discussion to a reasoned conclusion that still leaves one thinking." -Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life

"A reading of Thoreau for the age of Trump-and really for any moment when our courage as individuals and as a polity seems to be flagging. This is a book that will make you think, and perhaps even act!" -Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Falter

"Lessons from Walden delivers exactly what its title promises-an educational guide for an individual life committed to simplicity, moral responsibility, and ethical integrity. Like Thoreau, Taylor's goal is to wake us up." -Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, author of Thoreau in His Own Time

"Lessons from Walden is a welcome tonic in this moment of political and environmental crisis. Bob Pepperman Taylor's always-trenchant and insightful analysis reveals Thoreau's enduring relevance for modern democracies. His lessons are both important and timely." -Kimberly Smith, author of The Conservation Constitution

"What would Thoreau say about the latest rise of populism and threats to the environment? 'One of the points I make is that Walden doesn't provide prescriptions for political crisis,' Taylor said. 'Thoreau's . . . contribution helps us think beyond the immediate crisis, to how we can each live as more responsible citizens." -EurekAlert.org

"The year of a presidential election seems like a particularly good time to revisit the qualities necessary for American self-governance. Bob Pepperman Taylor's book, Lessons from Walden: Thoreau and the Crisis of American Democracy attempts to do just that. Reaching back to Jacksonian democracy, Taylor uses Henry David Thoreau as a tour guide to reveal the threats and temptations in the contemporary American landscape." -Law and Liberty

"Lessons from Walden [is] an extraordinary book. . . . It offers a compelling, well-thought out argument about the relevance of Thoreau in our political time." -Perspectives on Politics