Henry David Thoreau’s masterwork Walden and Civil Disobedience is a collection of his reflections on life and society. Noted transcendentalist Thoreau wrote Walden as a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. Civil Disobedience was cited by both Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as influential in their drive to create positive change through nonviolent means. Thoreau’s essay is just as applicable today as people search for their own role in making society better.