
Inventing Human Rights
A History
Lynn Hunt(Author)
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Published on 25. April 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-393-33199-8 (ISBN)
Description
How were human rights invented, and how does their tumultuous history influence their perception and our ability to protect them today? From Professor Lynn Hunt comes this extraordinary cultural and intellectual history, which traces the roots of human rights to the rejection of torture as a means for finding the truth. She demonstrates how ideas of human relationships portrayed in novels and art helped spread these new ideals and how human rights continue to be contested today.
Reviews / Votes
"Elegant... intriguing, if not audacious... Hunt is an astute historian." -- Joanna Bourke - Harper's "Fast-paced, provocative, and ultimately optimistic. Declarations, she writes, are not empty words but transformative; they make us want to become the people they claim we are." -- The New Yorker "A provocative and engaging history of the political impact of human rights." -- Gary J. Bass - New Republic "This is a wonderful story of the emergence and development of the powerful idea of human rights, written by one of the leading historians of our time." -- Amartya Sen "Rich, elegant, and persuasive." -- London Review of Books "As Americans begin to hold their leaders accountable for the mistakes made in the war against terror, this book ought to serve as a guide to thinking about one of the most serious mistakes of all, the belief that America can win that war by revoking the Declaration that brought the nation into being." -- Alan Wolfe - CommonwealMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 211 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
245 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-393-33199-8 (9780393331998)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2008
W. W. Norton & Company
€15.49
Available for download
Previous edition

Lynn Hunt
Inventing Human Rights: A History
Book
03/2007
WW Norton & Co
€39.80
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
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.