The image of Henry David Thoreau with which most Americans leave high school is of a reclusive young man hiking off to Walden Pond to build a cabin, live as a hermit, and commune with nature. In addition to being a nature obsessive, he was a pioneer of civil disobedience, a militant opponent of slavery, and a contrarian who seemed skeptical of whatever the majority believed or practiced. His experiment at Walden Pond, to “live deliberately” so that onlookers have no alternative but to ask if their own way of life is sensible or satisfactory, suggests he has much to say to us.

But there’s a reason he left Walden and returned to society.