124 pages Text by Henry David Thoreau 17 x 10.3 cm Language: French Paperback Publisher: Éditions Allia 2025
In July 1846, Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax that supported slavery and the war against Mexico. This act of conscience would inspire one of the most influential political essays of the 19th century: Civil Disobedience.
In this powerful work, Thoreau challenges the tyranny of the majority and places individual conscience above the law. How should a just person act under an unjust government? Is it right to obey in the name of public utility, or must one resist to uphold justice? Thoreau’s uncompromising stance, refusing complicity even at personal cost, laid the groundwork for generations of nonviolent resistance, inspiring figures from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr., and continuing to resonate with activists today.
This edition also includes William Paley’s The Duty of Submission to Civil Government (1785), which grounds obedience in the principle of public utility. Together, these texts illuminate a timeless debate: the tension between moral conscience and the demands of the state.
