Emerson and Thoreau are worth studying for their response to a burgeoning techno-industrial capitalist world, as well as the intolerable and seemingly intractable institution that fueled it: slavery. Their abolitionist work is the main focus of the essays and speeches in this volume. By exploring that work we also find the roots of today's intolerable and seemingly intractable injustices, including climate injustice fueled by environmental racism. But what does effective counter-friction activism look like? Do we fight for reform of existing institutions, more radical change, or for both? Do we start with changing ourselves or society or both? What are the best strategies and tactics for changing lifeways and structures? What rhetoric is most persuasive? Is violence ever a proper response to violence? Does turning to violence lead to the loss of the moral high ground? How should we define violence? How can we pursue the ethical good while putting up the good fight? Emerson and Thoreau do not have final answers to these questions. No one does as they are ongoing questions that need ongoing and always renewed responses. But there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the writings and actions of Emerson and Thoreau, who delved deeply into these questions by applying transcendentalist principles to the abolitionist cause. We need to mine those lessons if we are to fittingly respond to our Anthropocene angst and call forth a better future. This much is clear: we need the active soul. Contents include Emerson's "The Over-Soul" (1841), "The Fugitive Slave Law" (1854), and "John Brown" (1860); Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" (1849), "Slavery in Massachusetts" (1854), and "The Last Days of John Brown" (1860); and an introduction by the editor, "From Abolitionism to Climate Justice."