Best known for fleeing civilization to live in a cabin on Walden Pond, Thoreau was part of an exciting time in American philosophy. He was a protege of famous poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his essay on civil disobedience influenced leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. The book covers his childhood, education, and his own famous act of civil disobedience. Supports history-social science standards requiring students to identify common themes in American art and thought as well as transcendentalism and individualism.