Johns Hopkins history professor Charles A. Barker describes the characteristics and beliefs of Henry David Thoreau, one of the Transcendentalists in Concord, MA. The narrator enumerates Thoreau's life events, including his isolation at Walden Pond and Emerson's influence on him. Dr. Carl Bode, English professor at the University of Maryland, analyzes Thoreau's 26-month Walden venture and suggests that Thoreau was experiencing the cycle of withdrawal and return as described by Arnold Toynbee. Dr. Barker discusses Thoreau's animosity towards his peers and his polemic essays, such as the 1849 "Essay on Civil Disobedience" and the 1859 "A Plea for Captain John Brown," his last outburst of creative energy. Individualistic and dogmatic to the end, Thoreau died of tuberculosis in 1862. Actor Ed Golden portrays Thoreau and recites lines written by him to underscore the scholars' comments.