Thoreau's Support of John Brown

FAIN: FT-13414-77

Michael Meyer
University of North Carolina, Charlotte (Charlotte, NC 28223-0001)

To begin a comprehensive attempt to describe and account for Thoreau's political thought by focusing on the Journal, Walden, and the specifically social and political essays. PI hopes to relate Thoreau to his own historical moment in order to place him in a context that will help determine how typical or extreme his positions were on particular issues and reform in general by focusing on Thoreau's writings on John Brown and their relation to contemporary newspaper coverage and to the popular image of Brown.