... , and cultural revolution, brought on by works from such authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Emerson preached to the young, Thoreau dropped out of society with his Walden experiment, foreshadowing elements of the civil rights movement with "civil disobedience", and Whitman faced scorn and censorship for his now-revered "Leaves of Grass". These ideas form the ... basis for the 20th century's civil rights movements and "hippie" movements of the sixties. On the surface there ... empires seems drudgery"1. This excerpt parallels the ideals of the hippie mov...

• Word Count: 842
• Approx Pages: 3

... stands in the way of individuality because the majority, instead of the individual thinker, makes decisions. Thoreau takes Emerson's "Self Reliance" philosophy further by becoming an activist while following his conscious or individual thoughts. An example is Thoreau protesting slavery using Civil Disobedience, "If one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually ... to withdraw from this co partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America"(9). Thoreau encourages disobeying unjust laws in ord...

• Word Count: 861
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate