Loading...
Welcome
Sign up
Login
Browse Books
Deals
VIP
0
Loading...
Play Sample
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (Version 3)
Written by:
Henry David Thoreau
Narrated by:
Phil Chenevert
Unabridged Audiobook
Play Free
Give as a gift
Ratings
Book
3
Narrator
Release Date
January 1, 2017
Duration
1 hour 7 minutes
Summary
"That government is best which governs least" is the famous opening line of this essay. The slavery crisis inflamed New England in the 1840s and 1850s. The environment became especially tense after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. A lifelong abolitionist, Thoreau delivered an impassioned speech which would later become Civil Disobedience in 1848, just months after leaving Walden Pond. The speech dealt with slavery, but at the same time excoriated American imperialism, particularly the Mexican-American War. Thoreau asserts that because governments are typically more harmful than helpful, they therefore cannot be justified.
Democracy is no cure for this, as majorities simply by virtue of being majorities do not also gain the virtues of wisdom and justice. The judgment of an individual's conscience is not necessarily inferior to the decisions of a political body or majority, and so "[i]t is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice." He adds,
"I cannot for an instant recognize as my government [that] which is the slave's government also." from Wikipedia
Browse By Category
Non-Fiction
>
Current Affairs, Law, & Politics
1 book added to cart
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience...
Henry David Thoreau
Subtotal
$0.00
View Cart
Continue Browsing
~~title~~
~~carousel-body~~
Back
Next
~~book-title~~
By: ~~author-single-string~~
~~tag-text~~
© Copyright 2011 - 2024 Storytel Audiobooks USA LLC. All Rights Reserved.