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The best study guide to Civil Disobedience on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need.
- Plot Summary
Thoreau goes on to give examples of his own efforts to...
- Quotes
Find the quotes you need in Henry David Thoreau's Civil...
- Civil Disobedience
Thoreau provides examples of his own acts of civil...
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Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” critiques the...
- American People vs. The American Government
Citing examples of the government’s recent transgressions,...
- Justice vs. Law
In “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau addresses the...
- State Submission as a Pretense for Patriotism
When Henry David Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience” in 1849,...
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- Plot Summary
Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law rather than a rejection of the system as a whole. The civil disobedient, finding legitimate avenues of change blocked or nonexistent, feels obligated by a higher, extralegal principle to break some specific law.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Thoreau provides examples of his own acts of civil disobedience. First, he recounts how he refused to pay a tax to the church, though someone else eventually paid on his behalf. Then he shares that he also did not pay a poll tax for six years, for which he was eventually imprisoned.
Civil disobedience, which is sometimes also referred to as nonviolent resistance, is typically defined as the act of refusing to obey certain laws of a government.
Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” is a powerful example of his Transcendentalist philosophy in action, as he argues that individuals have a duty to disobey unjust laws and to follow their own conscience, even if it means facing punishment or imprisonment.
The concept of civil disobedience, broadly defined as the violation of unjust laws in the name of conscience or religious principle, was more fully developed and widely applied by antislavery activists during the decades leading up to the Civil War.
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The following video provides context for Thoreau’s essay and explains Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience.
