In 1550, Étienne de La Boétie wrote his classic work of political reflection, Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, which laid the ground work for the concept of civil disobedience, and as such, has exerted an important influence on the traditions of dissidence from Thoreau and Ralph Emerson, to Tolstoy, to Gandhi.
Along with the complete text of Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, this edition includes a comprehensive 100-page biography, written by 19th century author Paul Bonnefon, on the life and times of de La Boétie. It was the only one ever written, and it has never before been published in English.
