Thoreau and the Sociological Imagination: The Wilds of Society is the first in-depth sociological examination of the ideas of Henry David Thoreau. Through explorations of Thoreau's intellectual links to early social thinkers, as well as the mainstay Thoreauvian concerns for the individual-society relationship, social change, and deconstructing society's idea of progress, Bingham illustrates the sophistication of Thoreau's sociological imagination challenging readers to re-examine the disciplinary boundaries between the social sciences and the humanities.

Thoreau and the Sociological Imagination: The Wilds of Society is the first in-depth sociological examination of the ideas of Henry David Thoreau. Through explorations of Thoreau's intellectual links to early social thinkers, as well as the mainstay Thoreauvian concerns for the individual-society relationship, social change, and deconstructing society's idea of progress, Bingham illustrates the sophistication of Thoreau's sociological imagination challenging readers to re-examine the disciplinary boundaries between the social sciences and the humanities.

From novelists to political cartoonists, artists have long brought a unique perspective to important public discussions of social and political issues. Yet, fury and debate over the role of the artist has resulted in blacklisting, banning, and symbolically burning artists who use their work as a means of social critique and social change. The Art of Social Critique makes a case for the complexity of artistic ways of "seeing" social life -- observing, analyzing and portraying society -- by examining the interdisciplinary nature of imagination. The authors cover a range of novelists, painters,...