To the Best of Our Knowledge, Failure (Nonfiction‪)‬

Was Henry David Thoreau a failure? His mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, called him the worst kind of failure: a dreamer. At Thoreau's funeral, Emerson said Thoreau was born for greatness, but he lacked ambition. He was no more than a dilettante. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll talk about the history of failure in a country that worships success. (Broadcast Date: January 14, 2005)