On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau

Oct 2013 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

Penned by American philosopher and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience examines the role of the individual’s conscience in governmental rule. Thoreau argues that individual citizens must not simply be subject to the decisions of government, but should question every political act to ensure that the system remains a tool for justice and morality—a message that continues to resonate powerfully in modern times.

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, or simply Civil Disobedience, was an important reflection of transcendentalist philosophy which has since come to shape American theories on the role of citizens. Thoreau was a staunch abolitionist, and his writing was informed by the injustices he observed in the American political and social systems of mid-nineteenth century.

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About the author

Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. He spent time as a school teacher after attending Harvard College but was dismissed for his refusal to administer corporal punishment. In 1845, wanting to write his first book, he moved to Walden Pond and built his cabin on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was during his time at Walden that Thoreau was imprisoned briefly for not paying taxes; this experience became the basis for his well-known essay "Civil Disobedience." He died of tuberculosis in 1862 at the age of 44.