A "Revolution" in Political Thought: Translations of Polybius Book 6 and the Conceptual History of Revolution.

How did "revolution" obtain its particular meanings in political thought? This article examines the role played by translations of Polybius's Histories (Book 6), where "revolution" was the near-unanimous choice for rendering "anacyclosis." It further claims "revolution" displaced the earlier Aristotelian vocabulary of political change (in translations, "mutation" and "sedition"). Finally, it argues that recognizing the Polybian source of much "revolutionary" language in the early modern period fills in an important chapter in the conceptual history of revolution.

Christian Human Rights in the French Revolution.

This essay explores the early Catholic response to the concept of human rights. It is widely assumed that the Catholic Church opposed human rights talk in the wake of the French Revolution, and only slowly came around to accepting it in the twentieth century. However, a more systematic analysis of Pius VI's stance toward the French Revolution reveals that he approved of human rights, but had a more Thomistic understanding of them than what was found in the French Declaration.