We’re reading and writing about Thoreau. Deliberately.
The Readers’ Thoreau is the online community for Digital Thoreau.
- Join conversations in the margins of Walden, Resistance to Civil Government, and other Thoreau texts.
- Teaching a class? Put your students in a reading group. Showcase their conversations or keep them private.
- Find and contribute to other open-access Thoreau scholarship.
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Recent Comments
- Comment on Economy 71-81 by Mykayla McCarthyPosted in: ENGL 340 S25 Geneseo [I had earned $13 34] Many interesting things about this paragraph, including how he writes the price: $13.34. No decimal point between numbers, and a very low number for 14 items, which would most like translate to at least $50 today. A price that really brings into perspective how […]
- Comment on Economy 71-81 by Niia ConklinPosted in: ENGL 340 S25 Geneseo [ “But,” says one, “you do not mean that the students should go to work with their hands instead of their heads?” I do not mean that exactly, but I mean something which he might think a good deal like that; I mean that they should not play life, […]
- Comment on Economy 71-81 by OliviaPosted in: ENGL 340 S25 Geneseo Thoreau uses the railroad metaphor to highlight how few people actually gain from the continuous desire of progress and financial prosperity, while many are left behind or damaged. Why does Thoreau express his ideas on society advancement and personal pleasure using such striking metaphors and imagery?
- Comment on Economy 71-81 by Maggie KennellPosted in: ENGL 340 S25 Geneseo [The expense of food for eight months, ] I find it compelling how much of Thoreau’s writing resonates with me in 2025. Although Thoreau’s motives for calculating the cost of his lifestyle was to see how he could lead a life in Concord by buying only the necessities, it […]
- Comment on Economy 98-111 by AubreyPosted in: ENGL 340 S25 Geneseo " A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one." I can find you a Newfoundland dog […]
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