On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
- Reading level
- Plain English
- Price
- Free
About the book
"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau is an essay first published in 1849. Thoreau argues that individuals must follow their conscience over unjust laws, challenging the idea that citizens should passively obey government authority. Motivated by his opposition to slavery and the Mexican-American War, he contends that governments often enable injustice rather than prevent it. The essay became a foundational text for nonviolent resistance, profoundly influencing activists like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in their struggles for justice and social change.
- Civil disobedience
- Government, Resistance to
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #71. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience on Wikipedia.
