The Gita within Walden - Tapa dura

"By attending to the complexity and beauty of Thoreau's argument ... and reading through it to a dazzling array of sources that includes the Gita, Friedrich not only illuminates the two books under consideration but also sheds some light for writers and others engaged in seeking to envision a social reality that is not permeated by violence." -- Visual Artists Collective

"This is the most comprehensive study to date of Henry David Thoreau's classic in relation to Hindu scripture." -- CHOICE

"Friedrich frames his study around the use of metaphors, ideals of conduct, ideas of purity, and personality-based ideas of virtue. More than a book about two books, it is also about two cultures and two authors." -- Lalita Pandit, coeditor of Literary India: Comparative Studies in Aesthetics, Colonialism, and Culture