Happy Birthday, Henry David Thoreau: On Walden and Social Justice, with Alda Balthrop-Lewis

Storytelling Animals

Today marks the 205th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, and to celebrate, I brought on Alda Balthrop-Lewis, author of Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism. Why (if at all) does Thoreau still matter? How did he engage with the political issues of his time, in particular slavery and the advances of industrial capitalism? Do the ascetic practices he engaged in at Walden Pond have any lessons for the contemporary environmentalist?

Learn more about Alda's book here: https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/religious-ethics/thoreaus-religion-walden-woods-social-justice-and-politics-asceticism?format=HB

Read her analysis of Thoreau's critique of philanthropy here (also a response to the 2015 anti-Thoreau New Yorker article I mistakenly attribute to The Atlantic in the podcast): https://religiondispatches.org/thoreaus-ferocious-critique-of-philanthropy-does-not-make-him-selfish/

Read my 2017 article on Thoreau, from which I quote in the intro, here: https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-abolitionist-of-walden-pond

Alda's book focuses on Walden, Thoreau's most famous work and the one most relevant to her argument about political asceticism. But or if you are interested in exploring his ideas further, I also recommend some of his essays:

On Resistance to Civil Government (this is the famous and influential one about civil disobedience) - https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil/

Slavery in Massachusetts (perhaps my favorite) - https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Slavery_Massachusetts.html

Life Without Principle - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1863/10/life-without-principle/542217/

A Plea for Captain John Brown - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2567/2567-h/2567-h.htm

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