SOURCE: Mumford, Lewis. “Lewis Mumford on Thoreau, Nature, and Society.” In A Century of Early Ecocriticism, edited by David Mazel, pp. 249‐56. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001.

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1926 as “The Dawn,” Mumford critiques Henry David Thoreau's writing and values, discussing the writer's views about consumerism, his ideas about the relationship between science and nature, and his interest in nature as a means for improving individuals and society.

The pioneer who broke the trail westward left scarcely a trace of his adventure in the mind: what remains are the tags of pioneer customs, and mere souvenirs of the past, like the Pittsburg stogy, which is our living connection to‐day with the Conestoga wagon, whose drivers used to roll cigars as the first covered wagons plodded over the Alleghenies.

What the pioneer felt, if he felt anything, in the midst of these new solitudes...