A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau

The writings of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) have captivated scholars, activists, and ecologists for more than a century. Less attention has been paid, however, to the author’s political philosophy and its influence on American public life. Although Thoreau’s doctrine of civil disobedience has long since become a touchstone of world history, the greater part of his political legacy has been overlooked. With a resurgence of interest in recent years, A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau is the first volume focused exclusively on Thoreau’s ethical and political thought. Jack Turner illuminates the unexamined aspects of Thoreau’s political life and writings. Combining both new and classic essays, this book offers a fresh and comprehensive understanding of Thoreau’s politics, and includes discussions of subjects ranging from his democratic individualism to the political relevance of his intellectual eccentricity. The collection consists of works by sixteen prominent political theorists and includes an extended bibliography on Thoreau’s politics. A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau is a landmark reference for anyone seeking a better understanding of Thoreau’s complex political philosophy. Jack Turner is assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington. His articles have appeared in Political Theory, Raritan, and Polity. Over a dozen authors write a chapter that explores Thoreau’s political activism, and through this gain an glimpse of the political discourse that led to the start of the American Civil War. -- Naval District of Washington Waterline The first comprehensive collection focused exclusively on Thoreau as a political thinker. -- UWnews.org A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau sheds new light on Thoreau’s literary repertoire. . . . The collection also serves Thoreau well by setting him apart from his literary contemporaries . . . . [It] lift[s] Thoreau out of the American literary canon and recontextualize his work within the traditions of political theory. As such, researchers working beyond the confines of nineteenth-century literature will benefit greatly from this collection. -- The Year\u27s Work in English Studies The world knows Thoreau as a transcendentalist and literary naturalist, but less as a political thinker. Turner moves us in a fresh direction with this provocative new collection of essays by leading scholars in political science, philosophy, and ethics. -- William L. Howarth, Princeton University, former editor in chief of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau A first-rate collection of essays, exploring Thoreau’s contributions to the study of politics on issues ranging from freedom and democracy to individuality, self-cultivation, and the political imagination. Demonstrates persuasively that Thoreau continues to illuminate questions at the center of political theory today. -- Sharon R. Krause, director of graduate studies and associate professor of political science, Brown University Promises to reinvigorate debates about a whole range of under explored themes in Walden and in the political thought of nineteenth-century America. -- Bryan Garsten, associate professor of political science, Yale University An excellent starting point for the study of Thoreau as a political thinker. . . . This necessary companion for any serious student or scholar comprises Turner’s informative overview of Thoreau’s reemergence in contemporary political theory; eight reprinted essays published in the last 15 years by such established scholars as Nancy Rosenblum, Bob Pepperman Taylor, Jane Bennett, and Turner himself; eight new essays; a judiciously selected bibliography of commentary since 1950; and a substantive index. Critically and conceptually the collection covers a lot of ground. -- William Rossi, American Literary Scholarship Critically and conceptually the collection covers a lot of ground, with essays arranged in four broad topics, ranging from debating Thoreau\u27s identity as a democrat; analyzing his reception in post-1060s politics; his contributions to political theory, classical as well as contemporary; and the meteaphysical and ethical dimensions of his politics. -- American Literary Scholarship Jack Turner has given us a remarkable and exemplary collection of essays in his A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau . . . It is a special merit of the way in which this collection of essays is conceived and organized that it presents itself as an ongoing conversation in which the individual critics discuss, again and again, not only and conventionally the philosophical opinions and political stances advanced by their predecessors, but also the positions taken by their colleagues in the volume itself. -- Amerikastudienhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/1069/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Turner, Jack (Levant, Penobscot County)

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Overlap and activity glass transitions in plaquette spin models with hierarchical dynamics

We consider thermodynamic and dynamic phase transitions in plaquette spin models of glasses. The thermodynamic transitions involve coupled (annealed) replicas of the model. We map these coupled-replica systems to a single replica in a magnetic field, which allows us to analyse the resulting phase transitions in detail. For the triangular plaquette model (TPM), we find for the coupled-replica system a phase transition between high- and low-overlap phases, occuring at a coupling eps*(T), which vanishes in the low-temperature limit. Using computational path sampling techniques, we show that a single TPM also displays space-time transitions between active and inactive dynamical phases. These first-order dynamical transitions occur at a critical counting field s_c(T)>=0 that appears to vanish at zero temperature, in a manner reminiscent of the thermodynamic overlap transition. In order to extend the ideas to three dimensions we introduce the square pyramid model which also displays both overlap and activity transitions. We discuss a possible common origin of these various phase transitions, based on long-lived (metastable) glassy states.Comment: 12 pages, 9 fig

Demonstration of Glutamate Dehydrogenase in Azotobacter Vinelandii

In the early part of this century it was observed that certain microorganisms could grow in the absence of fixed nitrogen. Since those early observations there has been an intensive effort to unravel the mystery behind the physiology of nitrogen fixation. It was not until development of the use of heavy isotopes that we begin to learn the mechanism of biological nitrogen fixation. It was the object of this study to determine if glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) was present in A. vinelandii when it was fixing nitrogen. If it is assumed that GDH is the principal means of assimilation of NH+4 by A. vinelandii, it should be present when cells are fixing nitrogen if NH+4 is an intermediate in nitrogen fixation. If GDH were found in cells fixing nitrogen this would not be proof of its involvement in the process. However, if it were shown to be absent during nitrogen fixation and present during NH+4 assimilation, one can assume that it plays no role in nitrogen fixation. For this to be true GDH must be an inducible enzyme

The coevolution of toxin and antitoxin genes drives the dynamics of bacterial addiction complexes and intragenomic conflict

Bacterial genomes commonly contain ‘addiction’ gene complexes that code for both a toxin and a corresponding antitoxin. As long as both genes are expressed, cells carrying the complex can remain healthy. However, loss of the complex (including segregational loss in daughter cells) can entail death of the cell. We develop a theoretical model to explore a number of evolutionary puzzles posed by toxin–antitoxin (TA) population biology. We first extend earlier results demonstrating that TA complexes can spread on plasmids, as an adaptation to plasmid competition in spatially structured environments, and highlight the role of kin selection. We then considered the emergence of TA complexes on plasmids from previously unlinked toxin and antitoxin genes. We find that one of these traits must offer at least initially a direct advantage in some but not all environments encountered by the evolving plasmid population. Finally, our study predicts non-transitive ‘rock-paper-scissors’ dynamics to be a feature of intragenomic conflict mediated by TA complexes. Intragenomic conflict could be sufficient to select deleterious genes on chromosomes and helps to explain the previously perplexing observation that many TA genes are found on bacterial chromosomes

An investigation of changes or errors in the cost parameters used in hald\u27s acceptance sampling model based on prior distribution and costs

In order for A. Hald\u27s acceptance sampling model based on prior distribution and costs to be of maximum benefit it is necessary to explore the sensitivity of the model to changes or errors in the cost parameters. This paper shows that it is relatively insensitive over the usual operating range of costs

LEADING INDICATORS FOR REGIONAL COTTON RESPONSE: STRUCTURAL AND TIME SERIES MODELING RESULTS

Resurging southeastern cotton production compels better cotton acreage forecasts for planning seed, chemical, and other input requirements. Structural models describe leading acreage response indicators, and forecasts are compared time-series models. Cotton price, loan rate, deficiency payments, lagged corn acreage, the PIK program, and previous cotton yield significantly influence response.Crop Production/Industries,