BloggingOn 4.2 - Forefathers of the Blog

While reading Thoreau's "Plea for John Brown" for my other class, I couldn't help but think that it would have made for a perfect, proto-blog. Furthermore, were it a blog, it would fit nicely into this week's class discussion: well known man-of-letters offers his astute perspective on current events, in an attepmt to redress what he feels is (to put it mildly) an unfair situation. Imagine that the many places where Thoreau quotes contemporary accounts of John Brown , could easily be hyperlinks to cnn, msn and the like. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this line of thought: not only has Thoreau's account survived (while other's have not), but it seems to have shaped the historical perspective on John Brown to some degree. Will any of today's blogs be as essential to forming the historical record?