Inventing Human Rights: A History

Hunt, Lynn

ISBN 10: 0393060950 / ISBN 13: 9780393060959

Published by W. W. Norton, 2007

Good condition ex-library book with usual library markings and stickers. Seller Inventory # 00104828388

Synopsis:

How were human rights invented, and what is their turbulent history? Human rights is a concept that only came to the forefront during the eighteenth century. When the American Declaration of Independence declared "all men are created equal" and the French proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man during their revolution, they were bringing a new guarantee into the world. But why then? How did such a revelation come to pass? In this extraordinary work of cultural and intellectual history, Professor Lynn Hunt grounds the creation of human rights in the changes that authors brought to literature, the rejection of torture as a means of finding out truth, and the spread of empathy. Hunt traces the amazing rise of rights, their momentous eclipse in the nineteenth century, and their culmination as a principle with the United Nations's proclamation in 1948. She finishes this work for our time with a diagnosis of the state of human rights today.

About the Author: Lynn Hunt is distinguished research professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The author of numerous works, including Inventing Human Rights and Writing History in the Global Era, and a former president of the American Historical Association, she lives in Los Angeles.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Inventing Human Rights: A History
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Publication Date: 2007
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Good