By Bernard E. Harcourt In discussions of political action, we tend to speak of Thoreau, Gandhi, and King in the same breath—as “founders” and “practitioners” of modern civil disobedience. We tend to think of the three as each having exercised… Continue Reading
By Reinhold Martin “We were born into a world of ghosts and illusions that have haunted our minds our entire lives.” So begins the anonymously authored “Communiqué 1,” which opens the inaugural issue of the journal Tidal in a tone that… Continue Reading
By Aurélie Vialette “A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority.” These are Henry David Thoreau’s words, from his famous 1849 essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.[i] Thoreau, who asks the question “Must the citizen ever for a… Continue Reading
By Sandra Laugier Refusing to obey the law in order to show its injustice: this is the principle of civil disobedience defined by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1861). Today this principle is driving new protest movements, from Anonymous to zadist squatters.… Continue Reading
By Daniele Lorenzini C’est au sein d’un contexte intellectuel et politique très précis, celui de la démocratie américaine de la moitié du XIXe siècle et du courant philosophique du « transcendantalisme », que l’expression « désobéissance civile » a été forgée, recevant aussi sa… Continue Reading