Henry David Thoreau

The Thoreau Reader, curated by Richard Lenat in cooperation with the Thoreau Society, presents annotated editions of Henry David Thoreau’s works including Civil Disobedience and Walden. Thoreau’s refusal to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the U.S. war with Mexico later influenced figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., whose philosophy of nonviolent resistance drew upon Thoreau’s assertion that when government becomes destructive of human rights, individuals may have a moral duty to resist unjust law.