Inventing Human Rights: A History“A tour de force.”—Gordon S. Wood, New York Times Book Review 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. |
Contents
| 11 | |
TORRENTS OF EMOTION | 35 |
BONE OF THEIR BONE | 70 |
THEY HAVE SET A GREAT EXAMPLE | 113 |
THERE WILL BE NO END OF IT | 146 |
THE SOFT POWER OF HUMANITY | 176 |
Three Declarations 1776 1789 1948 | 215 |
Notes | 230 |
Permissions | 261 |
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abolished abolition Archives parlementaires argued Article authority autonomy Beccaria began body Britain British Burlamaqui Calas Calas Affair Cambridge Cesare Beccaria citizens claimed Clarissa Condorcet Constitution crime Criminal Law cruel punishment cultural Declaration of Independence declaration of rights decree deputies Diderot divorce droit naturel droits de l'homme eighteenth century emotions empathy Encyclopédie English Enlightenment epistolary novel equal political rights equal rights example feelings France freedom French Revolution Grotius honor human rights individual insisted Jean Jean Jacques Rousseau Jews judicial torture Julie justice king letters liberty London ment moral Muyart National Assembly natural law natural rights pain Pamela pamphlet Paris passions penal portraits principles Protestants quote readers reading reform religion religious Revolutionary Richard Price Richardson rights of humanity Rousseau Saint Domingue Samuel Richardson slavery slaves social society Third Estate Thomas Jefferson tion torture and cruel traditional translation University Press Voltaire voted women writing wrote