"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string... Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness... Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance," 1841
Which contemporary work most directly extended Emerson's individualism into political resistance?
- Acheck_circle
Henry David Thoreau's 'Resistance to Civil Government' (1849)
- B
James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers (1823)
- C
Washington Irving's Sketch Book (1819)
- D
Noah Webster's American Dictionary (1828)
Explanation
Thoreau, Emerson's friend and protégé, applied Transcendentalist individualism to politics in his essay defending civil disobedience against unjust laws like the Fugitive Slave Act and the Mexican War.