Thoreau's political writing is intensely personal and direct. Both his life andwork focus uncompromisingly on the question "how should I live'?" and forThoreau no element of day-today existence is left untouched by moral andpolitical issues.
This edition of Thoreau's political essays includes "Civil Disobedience,selections from Walden, " Life Withqut Principle," and the anti-slaveryaddresses, such as "Slavery in MassachuSetts." In her introduction. Nancy L.Rosenblum places the essays in the coniext of Thoreau's life of self-exanfin-ation, and the debates about the abolition of slavery, and she analyzes thethemes of citizenship and resistance that have made Thoreau an enduringinfluence in political philosophy and practice.
