1)  Is the Nearings' return to the land a retreat?  If so, what are they fleeing and hope do they hope to escape it?  If not, how would you characterize their move?

2)  How does the Nearings' vision of rural life compare to earlier historical and/or mythic visions?  Would you call it nostalgic?  progressive?  a little of each?

3)  What is the place of leisure in the Nearings' vision?  Why is it so important?  What do they intend to use it for?

4)  What is the Nearings' relation to the world of finance and commodity?  Why do they want to withdraw from it?  Are their reasons economically sound?  morally grounded?

5)  What do you tink of their ways of planning their time?  Is this obsessive orderliness or merely practical planning?  What is its goal?

6)  Compare Thoreau's and the Nearings' definitions of independence.  What do the work to be free OF and free FOR?

7)  Compare Thoreau's and the Nearings' reasons for selecting the sites for their settlements.

8)  Does Thoreau's rhapsodizing about morning and awakenedness have a counterpart in the Nearings?

9)  Compare Thoreau's famous statement of purpose ("I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately . . .") with the Nearings purposes.

10)  How close and Thoreau's and the Nearings' visions of simplicity?

11)  Compare Thoreau's ideal day ("Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature") with the Nearings' daily plans.  Are they compatible?