Shelley inspired which American thinker to engage in civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance?

Shelley inspired which American thinker to engage in civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance?

• A. Henry David Thoreau
• B. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• C. Thomas Paine
• D. Walt Whitman

Answer: (A)

Romantic-era ideas about conscience and resistance to unjust authority can spur acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Shelley embodied that radical impulse, arguing that individuals have a moral duty to oppose oppression even when it means clashing with the state. Henry David Thoreau absorbed this spirit and put it into practice, famously arguing in Civil Disobedience that people must follow their conscience over the law when the law is unjust. He even tested the principle by refusing to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War, choosing noncooperation over violence. This commitment to principled, peaceful resistance became a powerful model for later movements, most notably Gandhi’s nonviolent strategy and the broader American civil rights tradition. Emerson influenced Thoreau as a mentor and helped shape his independent mind, while Paine and Whitman represent other threads of American thought, but the direct link to adopting civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance, grounded in Shelley's radical stance, is most clearly seen in Thoreau.

Romantic-era ideas about conscience and resistance to unjust authority can spur acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Shelley embodied that radical impulse, arguing that individuals have a moral duty to oppose oppression even when it means clashing with the state. Henry David Thoreau absorbed this spirit and put it into practice, famously arguing in Civil Disobedience that people must follow their conscience over the law when the law is unjust. He even tested the principle by refusing to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War, choosing noncooperation over violence. This commitment to principled, peaceful resistance became a powerful model for later movements, most notably Gandhi’s nonviolent strategy and the broader American civil rights tradition. Emerson influenced Thoreau as a mentor and helped shape his independent mind, while Paine and Whitman represent other threads of American thought, but the direct link to adopting civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance, grounded in Shelley's radical stance, is most clearly seen in Thoreau.