Disobedience in Western Political Thought: A Genealogy

Synopsis

The Global Age Is Distinguished By Disobedience, From The Protests In Tiananmen Square To The Fall Of The Berlin Wall, To The Anti-g8 And Anti-world Trade Organization Demonstrations. In This Book, Raffaele Laudani Offers A Systematic Review Of How Disobedience Has Been Conceptualized, Supported, And Criticized Throughout History. Laudani Documents The Appearance Of Disobedience In The Political Lexicon From Ancient Times To The Present, And Explains The Word's Manifestations, Showing How Its Semantic Wealth Transcended Its Liberal Interpretations In The 1960s And 1970s. Disobedience, Laudani Finds, Is Not Merely An Alternative To Revolution And Rebellion, But A Different Way Of Conceiving Radical Politics, One Based On Withdrawal Of Consent And Defection In Relation To The Established Order. -- Publisher's Description. Introduction -- Before Disobedience : Antiquity And The Middle Ages -- The Tragedy And Mockery Of Greek Disobedience -- Disobeying In Concordia -- Horror Vacui: At The Origins Of The Christian Negation Of Disobedience -- Disobedience Without Sedition: Medieval And Late Medieval Resistance -- The Modernity Of Disobedience -- Disobedient Humanism -- The Duty To Resist And The Negation Of Disobedience -- The Atlantic Space Of Disobedience -- Logics Of Sovereignty And Disobedience -- Disobedience In The Age Of Revolutions -- Disobedience And Colonial Power -- A Disobedient Revolution -- Revolution Without Disobedience -- Disobedience After The Revolution -- Postcolonial Disobedience -- When Disobedience Is Civil -- The Legacy Of A Misunderstanding -- Civil Disobedience As Direct Action -- From Direct Action To Civil Disobedience -- The Limits Of Civil Disobedience -- Crisis And Criticism Of Civil Disobedience -- Disobedience In The Crisis Of Sovereignty -- Unjustified Absence: Disobedience Facing Nazism -- Contaminations -- Two European Perspectives On American Civil Disobedience -- Disobedience And Globalization. Raffaele Laudani, University Of Bologna ; Foreward By Adam Sitze, Amherst College. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.