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Henry David Thoreau, the State of Nature, and the Redemption of Liberalism

1985; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2131071

1468-2508

Philip Abbott,

Research, Science, and Academia

This article is an attempt to reinterpret and reevaluate Henry David Thoreau as a political theorist. While the commentary on Thoreau's political thought is extensive, no consensus has emerged on even the most fundamental aspects of his political writings. Through an examination of autobiographical works by Thoreau an effort is made to find a structural and thematic base that underlies his directly political writings. In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden, and Cape Cod, Thoreau attempts to discover and outline a "state of nature" from which a genuinely communitarian America can be rebuilt. These attempts to "redeem" liberalism through a personal examination of the origins of liberal society are frequently blocked as Thoreau's own conception of self-disintegrates when it confronts American culture. Nevertheless, Thoreau's failure does inform us about the character of his political theory and also about the nature of our indigenous radicalism.