Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

By: Henry David Thoreau

Narrated by: Robin Field

In the early spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau built and lived in a cabin near the shore of Walden Pond in rural Massachusetts. For the next two years, he enacted his own Transcendentalist experiment, living a simple life based on self-reliance, individualism, and harmony with nature. The journal he kept at that time evolved into his masterwork, Walden, an eloquent expression of a uniquely American philosophy.

During the same period, Thoreau endured a one-day imprisonment for his refusal to pay a poll tax, an act of protest against the government for supporting the Mexican War, to which he was morally opposed. In his essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," Thoreau defends the principles of such nonviolent protest, setting an example that has influenced such figures as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., and endures to this day.

Public Domain (P)1997 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Walden is a major philosophical statement on the American character....as readable and perhaps even more timely than when it was written." ( Masterpieces of World Literature)

Thoreau is such a hipster

But he's a fascinating one. While the book is, at times, self-indulgent and verges on listening to someone else's grocery list... that's kind of the par you hope for on this course. You wouldn't want the type of man who voluntarily renounced citizenship to live in the woods to be entirely without social eccentricities.

Read and absorb

This should be a requirement for every American citizen. Read/Listen and Absorb the message.

Exceptional Narration

The quality of the narration is excellent, particularly in tones and emotions imparted.
Some negatively comment on the slower pace of the reading.
I think the tempo is appropriate, if you are the type that require faster digestion of information then I would recommend some other topic entirely.

I will not review the author or the content, you know what you have searched for.

I wished to live deliberately

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It well written and engaging even over the most mundane. For a 19th century writing, it still comes across fresh and is surprisingly reflect of modern sentiments.

Mandatory reading\listeng

All time classic a must read/listen. Be prepared to take your time as the author intends for you.