Notes

1．Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution．In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.

2．Henry David Thoreau(1817—1862)was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher．He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

3．Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America．A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist politician，scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat.

4．Mark Twain(1835—1910)also known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer．Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.