Citizen Thoreau

Thoreau’s Walden remains a classic American document of independence. Part natural history, part personal philosophy, part journal of an experiment in solitude, the book’s influence has only increased with the passing of time. Any study of Thoreau’s socio-political thought must begin here. For written at the same time and out of the same experiences was “Civil Disobedience,” which applies similar principles of individualism to civil life, culminating in a call for a life that answers to a power outside of and unaffected by the state.

But in time Thoreau would write more incendiary political tracts. Both “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “A Plea for Captain John Brown” little fit the notion of non-violent resistance often indentified with Thoreau. In these later essays we find a man fully engaged with the most pressing social problems of his time and willing to porpose radical solutions of radical problems. Understanding this quintessential American demands a thorough understanding of all his writings on society.