Civil Disobedience (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

  • Author: Henry David Thoreau
  • First Published: 1849
  • Type of Work: Political Essay
  • Genres: Nonfiction
  • Subjects: Justice

Thoreau went to jail in July, 1846, for refusing to pay his poll tax. He objected not to the uses to which it was put but to the fact that paying it supported his state, Massachusetts, which supported such federal policies as slavery and the Mexican War, a dispute over territory and treaties in which the United States was not clearly the wronged party.

Thoreau expressed his ideas on the individual’s relation to government first in a speech in 1848, which was originally published under the title “Resistance to Civil Government.” While he looked forward to a day when government should be unnecessary, he did not object to his government on general principles. He was happy to pay taxes for what will benefit the public good. He did not, however, wish to support a government whose actions he disapproved of.

Most people, he observed, simply go along with their government’s actions, even while disagreeing, simply because it is easier. Such people relinquish what makes them human.

When unjust laws exist, people have the choice of obeying them, obeying them while trying to change them, or refusing to obey them. For Thoreau, the choice is clear: only the third way keeps one’s conscience clear.

It is not enough to wait until enough people agree to change a law by voting. One must simply break the law. Even if one lands in jail, one is morally free, for, as Thoreau says, when anyone is imprisoned unjustly, the only place for a just person is in prison. Even a single individual, if right, can constitute a majority of one.

Thoreau’s moral challenge and courageous ideas inspired such twentieth century social-political leaders as Mahatma Gandhi, in India’s quest for freedom from British rule, and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the struggle against American racism. The civil disobedience Thoreau advocated remains a powerful method for political change.

Suggested Readings

Harding, Walter. The Days of Henry Thoreau. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.

Harding, Walter. Thoreau: A Century of Criticism. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1954.