On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

In his striking 1849 treatise, Henry David Thoreau makes the philosophical case for when an individual not only has the right, but the duty, to follow his or her own conscience in defiance of unjust government action. The arguments made in this essay have resonated throughout history, influencing writers and thinkers as diverse as Gandhi, Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ernest Hemingway, and modern libertarians.