Revolution And Rebellion: When Justice Opposes Law

At the beginning of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, he tells us that war between Athens and Sparta was “inevitable.” What makes war inevitable? “When in the Course of human events,” the Declaration of Independence begins, “it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” Why do we describe some wars—and some ideas—as revolutionary? What happens when justice and law are not aligned? The concept of “revolution” has social, political, and scientific dimensions that stretch back to the Ancient Greek ideas about philosophy, government, and even mathematics. We will explore these ideas from the distant past and how they influenced both American and European perspectives of the American Revolution.