Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience was originally published in 1849 as Resistance to Civil Government. Thoreau wrote this classic essay to advocate public resistance to the laws and acts of government that he considered unjust. The practical application of Civil Disobedience was largely ignored until the twentieth century when, at different times, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and anti-Vietnam War activists applied Thoreau's principles.