On Civil Disobedience & Life Without Principle - Paperback

by Henry David Thoreau (Author)

While Walden can be applied to almost anyone's life, On Civil Disobedience is like a venerated architectural landmark: it is preserved and admired, and sometimes visited, but for most of us there are not many occasions when it can actually be used. Still, although seldom mentioned without references to Gandhi or King, On Civil Disobedience has more history than many suspect. In the 1940's it was read by the Danish resistance, in the 1950's it was cherished by those who opposed McCarthyism, in the 1960's it was influential in the struggle against South African apartheid, and in the 1970's it was discovered by a new generation of anti-war activists. The lesson learned from all this experience is that Thoreau's ideas really do work, just as he imagined they would.

"Life Without Principle is the finest of Thoreau's negatives. Here is the woodchuck Thoreau, gritting his teeth until they are powdered."
Henry Canby, Thoreau

Life Without Principle originated as What Shall it Profit, a lecture delivered at Railroad Hall in Providence, Rhode Island, December 6, 1854. This version was edited by Thoreau for publication before he died, and published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1863 with its modern title.

Author Biography

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "On Civil Disobedience," an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs. He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.