Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience are two wildly different books Henry David Thoreau wrote around the same time. Walden chronicles Thoreau's decision to isolate himself in a cabin in Walden Pond, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience is a treatise of practical opposition to government tyranny and slavery. Though different, the books are united by the clarity provided by his productive isolation.