Henry David Thoreau

In this speech, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau argues in defense of John Brown and his actions in fighting for the abolition of slavery. In opposition to claims of newspapers and other Americans that John Brown's raid was insane, Thoreau viewed Brown as committed to fighting for the…

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The city has been a lure for millions, but most of the great American minds have been appalled by its excesses. Here an eminent observer, who knows firsthand the city’s threat, surveys the subject.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><em><span class="typestyle">Walden</span></em> is here, of course; but so too is Fanny Farmer’s first cookbook.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> From Fort Ticonderoga to the Plaza Hotel, from Appomattox Courthouse to Bugsy Siegel’s weird rose garden in Las Vegas, the present-day scene is enriched by knowledge of the American past</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> In the blustery days of late fall, the traveler still can find the sparseness and solitude that so greatly pleased the Concord naturalist in 1849</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody managed to extend the boundaries that cramped the lives of nineteenth-century women. Elizabeth introduced the kindergarten movement to America, Mary developed a new philosophy of mothering that we now take for granted, and Sophia was liberated from invalidism by her passionate love for her husband.</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">His speech was called “our intellectual Declaration of Independence.” Its theme was the universe itself; its hero, Man Thinking. Now, one hundred and seventy-five years later, a noted scholar sees Emerson’s great vision as both more beleaguered and more urgent than ever.</span></p>

<p>Some New England graveyards show evidence of rituals performed to ward off bloodthirsty murderers.</p>