Walden and Civil Disobedience: 150th Anniversary: 150th Anniversary Edition - Softcover

Thoreau, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451529456 ISBN 13: 9780451529459

Publisher: Signet Classics, 2004

Synopsis

Walden by Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s life for two years, two months, and two days around the shores of Walden Pond. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised. Along with his critique of the civilized world, Thoreau examines other issues afflicting man in society, ranging from economy and reading to solitude and higher laws. He also takes time to talk about the experience at Walden Pond itself, commenting on the animals and the way people treated him for living there, using those experiences to bring out his philosophical positions. This extended commentary on nature has often been interpreted as a strong statement to the natural religion that transcendentalists like Thoreau and Emerson were preaching.

Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government, it expressed Thoreau’s belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.

About this title

Review:

Economy. Where I Lived, And What I lived For. Reading. Sounds. Solitude. Visitors. The Bean-Field. The Village. The Ponds. Baker Farm. Higher Laws. Brute Neighbors. House-Warming. Former Inhabitants; And Winter Visitors. Winter Animals. The Pond in Winter. Spring. Conclusion.

Book Description:

One of the most influential books in early American literature

About this edition

• Publisher: Signet Classics
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0451529456
• ISBN 13: 9780451529459
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 320