Perspectives of Civilization

New Beginnings After the End

Abstract

Civilization and nature are quite intimately connected, and, as a result, a catastrophic change in the environment can produce significant alterations to both the understandings and
perceptions of civilization. This paper examines the views of Henry David Thoreau in an excerpt of Walden, William Cronon’s perceptions in “The Trouble with Wilderness; or
Getting Back to the Right Nature,” and James Berger’s analysis of representations of the postapocalypse in his book After the End to explore how they differ and align in the context of the
post-apocalypse