Publisher's Synopsis
Thoreau wrote his famous essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, as a protest against an unjust but popular war and the immoral but popular institution of slave-owning. I picked this book because I was looking to refresh my understanding of some points in American history. Given the current social and political turmoil, this work was disturbingly accurate.This book should be required reading for any American historian or student of politics in America. Tissues brought up in this book are relevant as much now as when HDT wrote the book. Henry David Thoreau, in Civil Disobedience, carefully leads us to his main premise: that government, any and all governments, to be strictly just, must have the sanction and consent of the governed. In other words, our legislative bodies--at whatever level--only have the power that we as citizens concede to them. Thoreau believes strongly in the rights and power of the individual.
