This was a fascinating alternative historical perspective on how "human rights" came to shape the American and French Revolutions. Of particular interest to me, was Hunt's convincing argument in Chapter One that 18th century epistolary novels helped create a sense of "inner-self," in readers, thus promoting empathy for "other" that extended to strangers and previously undervalued citizens. The chapter on torture was also fascinating, as Hunt argued that awareness of inner self led to a belief that our bodies are our own and only we have the right to our own bodies - which created a concrete turn of public opinion toward notions of discipline and torture.

In all, I really loved the perspectives offered in this book and loved how each point was tied to historical fact. Even if you don't agree with the conclusions Hunt draws from those facts, I highly recommend mulling the entire book over! ( )

A limited but informative look at the "rights revolution" in the 18th Century, when early liberals invented the concept of human rights and helped outlaw gruesome punishments and torture. The book was short but also felt a little stretched thin, like it needed an extra major point of argument to bolster its contention. I enjoyed Steven Pinker's briefer popularization of Hunt's work in "The Better Angels Of Our Nature" more. ( )

The first half of the book, which is full of intriguing ideas, deep research and on-point examples, deserves at least 4 stars. The second half, however, is much weaker, and while still interesting, lacks the same spark of original insight so much on display in the first section. I found her discussion of the foundations of human rights in the emerging ability of humans to empathize, formed by the new genre of the epistolary novels. ( )

An interesting little book about the evolution of human rights from he 1700's to today. At the beginning of the book Hunt asks an interesting question if human rights are "self evident" such as many decelerations of the time stated then why was it not until the 1700s that the issue of rights was championed? Hunt try's to answer this in the first half of the book saying that two things had to happen before human rights took center stage.

The First is that society had to develop a kind of social empathy for others. In her opinion the seed bed for this empathy came from the development of the epistolary novel as they gave the reader a seance of realism that a normal novel could not and made it easier for the reader, usually wealthy aristocrats to come to realize that there servants and peasants hand inner thoughts and problems just as they did thus humanizing them to an extent that it was harder to see just the social class. This would lead to other ideas of empathy that she discusses later in the chapter. The next change that had to happen was how the human body was viewed. According to Hunt prior to the 1700 the body was seen as just the shell holding the soul before death and thus not important but during the late1700's this changed into the idea that the body was sacred and belong to the individual. This would then lead to the protesting of judicial torture and movements all around Europe to abolish it.

Once empathy and the sacredness of the human body took place in society you then can have the start o the discussion of human rights which she devotes the rest of the book too. Hunt manly looks at the French Deceleration of Man and the problems they faced once stating all citizens had rights. such as realizing that each group such as Protestants, Jews, and slaves would argue for there rights and feel that there rights were being abused if not included. Which hunt also argues as one of the problems of declaring rights, that once done there will always be a group that seeks to address abuses and a society walks a thin line id dealing with each case while trying to live up to the ideals of their original intent. The last chapter looks more at the modern era and the creation of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the limitations of empathy as a motivation for human rights. The most interesting argument Hunt makes can be found here at the end of the chapter were she argues that with the creation of human rights also brought with it a whole host of evil twins stating

"The call for universal, equal and natural right stimulated the growth of new and sometimes fanatical ideologies of difference. New modes for gaining empathetic understanding opened the way to a sensationalism of violence. The effort to dislodge cruelty from the legal, judicial, and religious moorings made it more accessible as a everyday tool of domination and dehumanization. The utterly dehumanizing crimes of the twentieth century only become conceivable once everyone could claim to be equal members of the human family. . .Empathy has not been extinguished, as some have claimed. It has become a more powerful force for good then ever before. But the countervailing effect of violence, pain and domination is also greater then ever before."

Hunt end on a note that while humanity record on human rights has been rather mixed there is still hope as long as we strive for the ideals we have set.

The only real complaint i have with the book is that I wish some of the historical topics in the 2nd half of the book were covered more in-depth as a feel they were glossed over a little bit. Like I said a interesting little book that deals with some heavy stuff but presents in a very easy to understand way and gets to the hart of why human rights are important. ( )

http://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/269258# ( )