Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau first gave this as lectures at the Concord Lyceum in 1848 and published it in 1849 in Aesthetic Papers, the anthology Elizabeth Peabody edited, under the title Resistance to Civil Government. The argument is that a citizen's first duty is to their conscience rather than to the law, and that withdrawing support is the practical form that takes. The free text carries the later title, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.
Why you should read this
Thoreau wrote this after a night in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax that funded slavery and the Mexican-American War, and it became a direct influence on Gandhi's and King's theories of nonviolent resistance. Best for readers tracing that lineage rather than for Thoreau's nature writing.
- Field
- Political Philosophy
- Form
- Non-fiction
- Published
- 1849
- Themes
- PoliticsPolitical Philosophy
