This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, July 12th, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Henry David Thoreau marks his 200th birthday today, but his impact on American history may be overstated, and it's unfortunate

that his civil disobedience and transcendentalism didn't have a bigger impact.

That from Anthony Comegna of Libertarianism.org we spoke this week.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I've always viewed Henry David Thoreau as a bit of a Ron Swanson.

The two things that are celebrated, Henry David Thoreau pieces are of course Walden

and his essay Civil Disobedience. And you combine those two things and you find a man who enjoyed autonomy,

refused in many ways to play the game that is a democratic government and really

reveled in his right to be left alone.

Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment and I guess we know we'll have to put Ron

Swanson in the Libertarian pantheon alongside him.

The thing I would say about Thoreau from the outset here is that I think that he's an important

figure in Libertarianism, probably probably more so maybe much more so

than he is an important figure in American history and we should not confuse those

two things because it will make us think something very differently

about American history than what was actually the case.

Okay so it's in a way unfortunate that the Thore, the transcendentalists, did not have quite the impact

on American history that they're celebrated for, and yet the people who seem to be unsung the new Americans did have

such this profound impact on culture that they're not as celebrated for.

Yeah, if you do your history from above,

so if your focus is on the great men and they're great things,

...