Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-204) and index
The surveyor and the state -- Material to mythology -- Walden, Cape Cod, and the duty of the coast survey -- The skillful engineer -- Serving Admetus -- The science of the field notes -- The Concord surveyor and the Kansas surveyor -- "I am a surveyor."
Placing Thoreau's surveying in historical context, the author explains the cultural and ideological implications of surveying work in the mid-19th century. He the ways that Thoreau's environmentalist disposition and philosophical convictions asserted themselves even as he reduced the land to measurable terms and acted as an agent for bringing it under proprietary control
