Walden: Lessons for the New Millennium
This edition of Thoreau's classic contains an introduction and annotations by Bill McKibben, who asserts that "at the close of the 20th century, it is most crucial to read Walden as a practical environmentalist's volume, and to search for his heirs among those trying to change our relation to the planet."
It takes an irreverent, original writer and thinker like Bill McKibben to reveal to a new generation of readers how intensely practical Thoreau's vision in Walden is for those of us living our lives at the cusp of the new millennium.
Recent Thoreau scholarship has concentrated on Thoreau as prescient forest ecologist; McKibben--author of The End of Nature and one of our best-read social and environmental critics--places him firmly back in his role as cultural and spiritual seer. McKibben identifies two questions asked by Thoreau as central to a late-twentieth-century reading of Walden: "How much is enough?" and "How do I know what I want?" Questions, McKibben reminds us, that must come to dominate the end of the twentieth century if we are to live well into the twenty-first.
McKibben's relevant and lively introduction and annotations to the 1854 edition make us see Walden as, among other things, a way to think about how we use our time, how we spend our money --and how to live essential lives.
After I crashed and burned in a college intro to philosophy course, I wanted to see if I could find a work by someone who was both a thinker and a writer.
Thoreau, in his book Walden, proves himself to be it.
Walden is the narrative of the author's two year stay at the aforementioned pond. He has decided to live life simply, and in a collection of loosely connected essays, he describes the people, animals, and the pond that make up his new home. If you haven't spent real time out in nature, you might think this book is ridiculous. But go into the woods, and stay there until boredom and longing for the city stops. Just then you'll realize the awe he felt when examining the ice bubbles and listening to vagabond squirells. Thoreau has rediscovered the patches of Eden that still exist in the world. And if we are open-minded enough to listen to his instructions, we can find our way back to them.
Even if his insights into the idyllic perfection in nature fail to sway you to live more lightly in the world, Thoreau will open your eyes to the benefits of philosophy. He understands the man who marches to the beat of a different drummer, and shows through his clear, crisp text the results that thought and contemplation can hold for anyone. --Reviewer: Ben Hostmark from Los Angeles, CA United States
