Walden's Shore

Synopsis

"Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward," Thoreau invites his readers in "Walden," "till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call "reality. "" "Waldens Shore" explores Thoreaus understanding of that hard reality, not as metaphor but as physical science. Robert M. Thorson is interested in Thoreau the rock and mineral collector, interpreter of landscapes, and field scientist whose compass and measuring stick were as important to him as his plant press. At "Walden"s climax, Thoreau asks us to imagine a "living earth" upon which all animal and plant life is parasitic. This book examines Thoreaus understanding of the geodynamics of that living earth, and how his understanding informed the writing of "Walden. " The story unfolds against the ferment of natural science in the nineteenth century, as Natural Theology gave way to modern secular science. That era saw one of the great blunders in the history of American science--the rejection of glacial theory. Thorson demonstrates just how close Thoreau came to discovering a "theory of everything" that could have explained most of the landscape he saw from the doorway of his cabin at Walden. At pivotal moments in his career, Thoreau encountered the work of the geologist Charles Lyell and that of his protege Charles Darwin. Thorson concludes that the inevitable path of Thoreaus thought was descendental, not transcendental, as he worked his way downward through the complexity of life to its inorganic origin, the living rock.

Copyright:

2014

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780674728417

Publisher:

Harvard University Press

Date of Addition:

12/23/13

Copyrighted By:

Robert M. Thorson

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Literature and Fiction, Outdoors and Nature, Language Arts

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.