Whose Resistance Theory?

Abstract

This essay examines how members of the political Right in the United States—including insurrectionists, antiabortion extremists, and adherents of the QAnon conspiracy—have mobilized theories of resistance from early modern Europe to justify their opposition to state and federal law. Rather than simply dismiss these right-wing appeals to resistance theory as unscholarly and anachronistic, the essay argues that we must take them seriously as an uncomfortable part of this theory’s legacy.