Avia Pasternak and I co-edited a volume on The Ethics of Uncivil Protest and Resistance, which was published with Oxford University Press (January 2026). It is available online at Oxford Academic.
It includes chapters by: Yann Allard-Tremblay, Jeffrey Howard, Cristina Lafont, CM Lim, José Medina, Temi Ogunye, Avia Pasternak, Eniolá Ànúolúwapó Sóyemí, and Daniel Viehoff. Avia Pasternak and I co-authored the introduction.
Cambridge-based artist Leo Muellner created the cover art.
It includes chapters by: Yann Allard-Tremblay, Jeffrey Howard, Cristina Lafont, CM Lim, José Medina, Temi Ogunye, Avia Pasternak, Eniolá Ànúolúwapó Sóyemí, and Daniel Viehoff. Avia Pasternak and I co-authored the introduction.
Cambridge-based artist Leo Muellner created the cover art.
I also wrote a book on Civil and Uncivil Disobedience for the Cambridge Elements series in Political Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, expected online publication date: February 2026).
I also wrote a book on Civil and Uncivil Disobedience for the Cambridge Elements series in Political Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, expected online publication date: February 2026).
My first book, A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should Be Uncivil (Oxford University Press, 2018), tackles citizens' moral obligations under conditions of injustice--or what you might call the 'real world'. In it, I argue that the traditional arguments for the moral duty to obey the law, under non-ideal conditions like the ones we live under, support resisting injustice, including through civil and uncivil disobedience.
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The book is available in audiobook, narrated by Allyson Ryan (Tantor Audio, 2018).
It has been translated in Chinese (pictured on the left). The French translation (on the right) came out in October 2022 with Éditions Hermann under the title Le devoir de résister : Apologie de la désobéissance incivile. Cécile Degiovanni l'a recensé pour La vie des idées. |
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You can listen to my interviews with Robert Talisse for the New Books in Philosophy Podcast and with the Cato Institute's Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus for Free Thoughts. I spoke with two Australian podcasts, Radical Philosophy (here and here) and The Muse, about civil and uncivil disobedience and current events. Here's an interview about the book with Northeastern's own Political Review, NUPR. I also contributed to this Hi-Phi Nation podcast--my favorite philosophy podcast!--on Uncivil Disobedience.
From the Back Cover
"Candice Delmas has produced a beautifully written, deeply engaged, and carefully constrained argument for uncivil disobedience under certain conditions. Her defense of resistance as both right and obligation is hard to resist, and readers who prefer civility will find in this book a worthy opponent."
-- Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
"Delmas rethinks the conceptual and moral foundations of principled noncompliance with unjust laws, practices, and norms. She radically expands our sense of the scope and demands of political dissent. Her book offers a probing, sophisticated, and timely theory of the duty to resist injustice."
-- Tommie Shelby, author of Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform
"Candice Delmas's wonderful new book contends that we have a political obligation to oppose injustice, which can often give us a duty to disobey the law. The standard arguments for why we should follow the law, such as fairness and associative ties, are actually strong arguments for us to disobey including through uncivil disobedience to resist oppression. Insightful, gripping, and analytically sharp, Delmas's work is both a valuable contribution and a call to action."
-- Kimberley Brownlee, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick
-- Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
"Delmas rethinks the conceptual and moral foundations of principled noncompliance with unjust laws, practices, and norms. She radically expands our sense of the scope and demands of political dissent. Her book offers a probing, sophisticated, and timely theory of the duty to resist injustice."
-- Tommie Shelby, author of Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform
"Candice Delmas's wonderful new book contends that we have a political obligation to oppose injustice, which can often give us a duty to disobey the law. The standard arguments for why we should follow the law, such as fairness and associative ties, are actually strong arguments for us to disobey including through uncivil disobedience to resist oppression. Insightful, gripping, and analytically sharp, Delmas's work is both a valuable contribution and a call to action."
-- Kimberley Brownlee, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick
Reviews
Cécile Degiovanni a recensé mon livre pour La vie des idées (2023.11.08)
Avia Pasternak reviewed my book for The Philosophical Review (2021.01.01)
Koshka Duff reviewed my book for European Journal of Philosophy (2020.01.26). 
Ten-Herng Lai reviewed my book for Ethics, Vol. 129, No. 4 (July 2019). 
Ashwini Vasanthakumar reviewed my book for Mind (2019.11.15).
Jinyu Sun reviewed my book for Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 36, No. 4 (2019) 
William Smith wrote a review essay on my book and Jason Brennan's When All Else Fails for Ethics & International Affairs (2019.09.06). 
Andreas Marcou reviewed my book for Modern Law Review, Vol. 82, No. 6 (2019) 
Marta Giunta reviewed my book for Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Vol. 23 (Dec. 2019). 
Suzanne Smith reviewed my book for LSE Review of Books (2019.04.12).
Chris Bertram reviewed my book at Crooked Timber (2018.10.31).
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Christopher Finlay reviewed my book for NDPR (2019.06.21)
Júlio Tomé reviewed my book for The Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, Vol. 35, No. 103 (2020).
Erin Pineda reviewed my book for the European Journal of Political Theory (2019.04.25).
James Greenwood-Reeves reviewed my book for the Journal of Law and Society (2019.05.20).
Nausicaa Renner reviewed my book for Book Forum (Feb/March 2019).
Jennet Kirkpatrick reviewed my book for Political Theory, Vol. 48, No. 4 (2019). |
Sample Reviews
"Delmas systematically and compellingly demonstrates is that our political obligations as well as our latitude to disobey are farmore expansive, given the scale and scope of injustice, violence, and exploitation around us. On this front, Delmas' book stands as an original and significant contribution, and a challenge to accounts which fail to seriously consider what we owe to each other when we live within--and particularly when we benefit from--the conditions of systemic injustice."
-- Erin R Pineda, European Journal of Political Theory
"The elegance of her argument is that it takes received understandings of political obligation, and detaches them from an uncritical presumption towards duties of obedience... Delmas drives a persuasive and relatable argument through what might otherwise be treacherously broad, hazy territory... The book presents a robust but simple moral reasoning for uncoupling our political obligations from a presumed duty to obey - and one strongly relevant to our times."
-- James Greenwood-Reeves, Journal of Law and Society
"Delmas's book is a vitally important contribution to the literature that will reward close engagement from philosophers working in a variety of different fields of political theory."
-- Christopher Finlay, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"a provocative and rewarding contribution to the literature particularly valuable for its attention to the question of the situational conditions of obligatory, potentially uncivil resistance"
-- Suzanne Smith, LSE Review of Books
"Delmas tries to detangle our obligations with a thorough taxonomy of principled disobedience ... Delmas suggests that we have to build a collective way of thinking together and resisting together."
-- Nausicaa Renner, BookForum
-- Erin R Pineda, European Journal of Political Theory
"The elegance of her argument is that it takes received understandings of political obligation, and detaches them from an uncritical presumption towards duties of obedience... Delmas drives a persuasive and relatable argument through what might otherwise be treacherously broad, hazy territory... The book presents a robust but simple moral reasoning for uncoupling our political obligations from a presumed duty to obey - and one strongly relevant to our times."
-- James Greenwood-Reeves, Journal of Law and Society
"Delmas's book is a vitally important contribution to the literature that will reward close engagement from philosophers working in a variety of different fields of political theory."
-- Christopher Finlay, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"a provocative and rewarding contribution to the literature particularly valuable for its attention to the question of the situational conditions of obligatory, potentially uncivil resistance"
-- Suzanne Smith, LSE Review of Books
"Delmas tries to detangle our obligations with a thorough taxonomy of principled disobedience ... Delmas suggests that we have to build a collective way of thinking together and resisting together."
-- Nausicaa Renner, BookForum
