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Paradise (to Be) Regained
"Paradise (to be) Regained" is an essay written by Henry David Thoreau and published in 1843 in the '' United States Magazine and Democratic Review''. It takes the form of a review of John Adolphus Etzler's book ''The Paradise within the Reach of all Men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature and Machinery: An Address to all intelligent men, in two parts'', which had come out in a new edition the previous year. The essay amplifies such Thoreauvian themes as imploring people to self-betterment and a distrust of humanity's attempts to improve upon nature. Summary Etzler's book is technological utopianism taken to amazing extremes. Etzler believed that the technology of his time was adequate, if astutely applied, to usher in a paradise on earth in which nobody would need to toil, all needs would be provided, and the earth would be transformed into palaces and gardens. He just needed about ten years and some start-up financing; the blueprints were already written up. Thoreau's revi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book '' Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail.Thoreau, Henry David. ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Magazine And Democratic Review
''The United States Magazine and Democratic Review'' was a periodical published from 1837 to 1859 by John L. O'Sullivan. Its motto, "The best government is that which governs least", was famously paraphrased by Henry David Thoreau in "Resistance to Civil Government", better known as ''Civil Disobedience'', and is often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson. History In 1837, O'Sullivan co-founded and served as editor for ''The United States Magazine and Democratic Review'' (generally called the ''Democratic Review''). It was a highly regarded journal meant to champion Jacksonian Democracy, a movement which had usually been disparaged in the more conservative '' North American Review''. The magazine featured political essays, many of them penned by O'Sullivan himself, extolling the virtues of Jacksonian democracy and criticizing what Democrats regarded as the aristocratic pretensions of their opponents. The journal supported Martin Van Buren in the 1840 presidential electi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Adolphus Etzler
John Adolphus Etzler (1791–1846?) was a German engineer and inventor who immigrated to the United States in 1831 with a vision of creating a technological utopia. He was traveling with a group from Prussia, who included younger engineers John A. Roebling and his brother Carl. Because of disagreements, the group broke up. Etzler and most of the group first settled near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the early 1840s Etzler and several dozen of his followers moved to the tropics, to set up utopian communities to use his inventions in Venezuela and Trinidad. He believed his inventions could work off natural forces and avoid human labor. Their efforts failed and many people died. Etzler survived but disappeared from the record. Time in the US In 1833 in Pittsburgh, Etzler published his best-known work, a prospectus titled ''The Paradise within the Reach of all Men''. It outlined detailed, visionary plans to harness the energy of wind, water and sun to benefit mankind. This followed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Techno-utopianism
Technological utopianism (often called techno-utopianism or technoutopianism) is any ideology based on the premise that advances in science and technology could and should bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal. A techno-utopia is therefore an ideal society, in which laws, government, and social conditions are solely operating for the benefit and well-being of all its citizens, set in the near- or far-future, as advanced science and technology will allow these ideal living standards to exist; for example, post-scarcity, transformations in human nature, the avoidance or prevention of suffering and even the end of death. Technological utopianism is often connected with other discourses presenting technologies as agents of social and cultural change, such as technological determinism or media imaginaries. A tech-utopia does not disregard any problems that technology may cause, but strongly believes that technology allows mankind to make ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled " The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence."Richardson, p. 263. Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, '' Essays: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essays By Henry David Thoreau
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal and informal: formal essays are characterized by "serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length," whereas the informal essay is characterized by "the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc. Essays are commonly used as literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope's ''An Essay on Criticism'' and '' An Essay on Man''). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke's '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1843 Essays
Events January–March * January ** Serial publication of Charles Dickens's novel ''Martin Chuzzlewit'' begins in London; in the July chapters, he lands his hero in the United States. ** Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is published in a Boston magazine. ** The Quaker magazine '' The Friend'' is first published in London. * January 3 – The ''Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms'' (海國圖志, ''Hǎiguó Túzhì'') compiled by Wei Yuan and others, the first significant Chinese work on the West, is published in China. * January 6 – Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross discovers Snow Hill Island. * January 20 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, becomes ''de facto'' first prime minister of the Empire of Brazil. * February – Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa captures the fort and town of Riffa after the rival branch of the family fails to gain control of the Riffa Fort and flees to Manama. Shaikh Mohamed bin Ahmed is killed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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