ABSTRACT
From the mid-twentieth century onwards, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience gained prominence in relation to the social struggles of important figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. Civil Disobedience will surely continue to be relevant to debates about the relationship between individuals, political authority, and the rule of law. In practice, the concept of civil disobedience can be linked to many themes of contemporary importance. These debates are not only related to Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience but also hark back to discussions that took place in ancient Greece regarding the individual and the state. Civil Disobedience is one of Thoreau’s two major literary contributions, along with Walden, and is his most important political text. His depiction of civil disobedience will surely continue to be pertinent to debates in political philosophy and to serve as an intellectual foundation for social resistance.
