Dan Edelstein, "The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated for a constitution that prevented them by balancing social interests and forms of government. The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin (Princeton UP, 2025) traces h...
Dan Edelstein, "The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated for a constitution that prevented them by balancing social interests and forms of government. The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin (Princeton UP, 2025) traces h...
Dan Edelstein, "The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated for a constitution that prevented them by balancing social interests and forms of government. The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin (Princeton UP, 2025) traces h...
What Can Ancient History Tell Us About Revolutions?
Long before crowds stormed Bastille or Winter Palace, Greek thinkers treated revolution as the ultimate civic nightmare. So how did an existential danger morph into a promise of liberation—and what happens when that promise curdles into violence?
In this dynamic online forum, Dan Edelstein, Prof...
What Is a Revolution? | Dan Edelstein and Javier Mejia on the History of Revolutionary Thought
Interview with Dan Edelstein, author of 'The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin' (Princeton University Press)
Rather than telling the story of revolutions themselves, Edelstein traces the evolution of the idea of revolution—from ancient fears of political instabilit...
651. Redefining Revolutions: From Ancient Cycles to Modern Movements with Dan Edelstein
Dan Edelstein is a professor of French, history, and political science at Stanford University. He’s also the author of several books on revolution and the Enlightenment, including The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin, Let There Be Enlightenment: The Religious and ...
Can Civic Education Be Liberal?
The Alliance for Civics in the Academy hosts "Can Civic Education be Liberal?" with Melinda Zook, Joseph Knippenberg, Benjamin Storey, and Dan Edelstein on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, from 9:00–10:00 a.m. PT.
Civic education and liberal education are often treated as complementary, but their aims c...
What MAGA riots and the French Revolution have in common
From memes demanding we “eat the rich” to real-world insurrections, the language of revolution is everywhere. But what does it really mean to call for one today? Zing Tsjeng is joined by Dan Edelstein, professor of political science and history at Stanford University and author of The Revolution ...
What is a revolution anyways? What the history of an idea can teach us
Today, revolution is a catch-all term used by people across the political spectrum. There's a sense that revolutions are transformational, and even improving. But people haven't always thought that way. This hour, we trace the history of the idea from ancient Rome to the present, and look at what...