I think that most of the claims listed above could be argued well with specific evidence from Thoreau's essay, but I would be a little suspicious of one of the claims and downright skeptical about another one. To me, Thoreau seems disturbed by the emphasis on technological "improvements" in his day, such as the telegraph and railroad, but does he really believe that technology is the "primary cause of distress"? Right now, I really don't know, so I would wait to see how well the writer could support this interpretation before I would make up my mind
