A Philosophy of Walking

This “passionate affirmation of the simple life” explores how walking has influenced history’s greatest thinkers—from Henry David Thoreau and John Muir to Gandhi and Nietzsche. It charts the many different ways we get from A to B—the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, and the nature ramble—and reveals what they say about us. Gros draws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as something central to their practice, pondering Thoreau’s seclusion in Walden Woods, Rimbaud’s furious walks, Nerval’s rambles to cure melancholy, Rousseau's walking to think, and Nietzsche’s mountain wanderings to write. It is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other.