The Radical Relevance of Thoreau: William Homestead in conversation with David Gordon
Join author and educator William Homestead for an afternoon exploring the radical relevance of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the face of today’s intertwined educational, ecological, and moral crises. In dialogue with David Gordon, board member of the Thoreau Society, Homestead will reflect on his two latest works, which illuminate the enduring legacy of Transcendentalism as a source of resistance, renewal, and reform.
In Not Till We Are Lost: Thoreau, Education, and Climate Crisis (2024), Homestead challenges the dominant model of education—one driven by market values, consumerism, and technological distraction—and asks what it would mean to educate for inner life, ecological awareness, and moral courage. Drawing on Thoreau’s life and writings, the book proposes a “pedagogy of listening” that turns students toward both inward sources of wisdom and the needs of a planet in peril.
His anthology, The Active Soul: Emerson and Thoreau on Reform and Civil Disobedience (2025), brings together critical writings by and about these two thinkers, with a focus on their abolitionist commitments and their radical critiques of state power, injustice, and complicity. Homestead’s introduction examines how their lives and legacies—particularly their responses to slavery and support for figures like John Brown—offer vital resources for those confronting today’s climate injustice and structural violence.
Together, these works call for a renewed moral and spiritual vision rooted in Transcendentalist principles: listening deeply, living deliberately, and acting courageously in the face of crisis.
William Homestead is an interdisciplinary scholar, writer, and longtime college educator. He is the author of An Ecology of Communication: Response and Responsibility in an Age of Ecocrisis (2021), and has taught courses in environmental ethics, ecophilosophy, and environmental communication for over 25 years. His academic background includes degrees in Environmental Studies, Communication, and Creative Writing, and his work is informed by his experience with the Ometeca Institute, spiritual practice, and time spent in the natural world.