Henry David Thoreau
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 Maxham Daguerreotype of Henry David Thoreau made in 1856 | |
| Full name | Henry David Thoreau |
|---|---|
| Born | July 12, 1817 Concord, Massachusetts |
| Died | May 6, 1862 (aged 44) Concord, Massachusetts |
| Era | 19th century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Transcendentalism |
| Main interests | Natural history |
| Notable ideas | Abolitionism, Tax resistance, Development criticism, Civil disobedience, conscientious objection, Direct action, Environmentalism, Nonviolent resistance, Simple living |
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of Ecology and Environmental history, two sources of modern day Environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, Symbolic meanings, and historical lore; while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail.[2] He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time imploring one to abandon waste and Illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.[2]
He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of Civil disobedience influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thoreau is sometimes cited as an individualist anarchist.[3] Though Civil Disobedience seems to call for improving rather than abolishing government – "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"[4] – the direction of this improvement aims at anarchism: "'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."[4] Charles Madison describes his seemingly anarchist comments as "obviously the hyperbole of the advocate" and opines that Thoreau was too wise a philosopher to condone anarchy.[5] Richard Drinnon partly blames Thoreau for the ambiguity, noting that Thoreau's "sly satire, his liking for wide margins for his writing, and his fondness for paradox provided ammunition for widely divergent interpretations of 'Civil Disobedience.'" He further points out that although Thoreau writes that he only wants "at once" a better government, that does not rule out the possibility that a little later he might favor no government.[6]
