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Author: Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (University of California, Berkeley)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Imprint: Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)
ISBN: 9780511921667
ISBN 10: 0511921667
Publication Date: 05 June 2012
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Reviews
'Human Rights in the Twentieth Century is a landmark in a field of supreme importance. It is enlightening and therefore disenchanting in the most constructive sense. It brings together a fine group of scholars, mainly historians, to provide historical perspective on a topic that is sorely lacking it and shows the contingency of the deployment of human rights as a political language, the varied roots of that language, and the diversity of objects that it can address.' Donald Bloxham, University of Edinburgh 'This is an outstanding collection of essays on various aspects of human rights history in the twentieth century. The essays cover a wide range topically - from the intellectual linealogy of the human rights concept to its relationship to states in specific circumstances - chronologically and geographically and are of uniformly high quality. They make exciting reading and together contribute enormously to helping understand one of the most vital and important - but hitherto insufficiently studied - developments in recent history.' Akira Iriye, Harvard University 'This is an impressive collection on a timely and important topic. Its strengths are considerable, including both stimulating synthetic 'think-pieces' on the changing meanings of 'human rights' and archivally based studies of how, and with what results, 'rights-talk' was mobilized by different groups and in different situations.' Susan Pedersen, Columbia University 'At long last we have a book that takes a critical approach to the history of human rights. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann has put together a stellar cast of historians whose topics range widely around the globe. His own introduction raises the scholarship on human rights to a new level. This is the book that scholars and practitioners will need to read and debate.' Eric D. Weitz, University of Minnesota
'Human Rights in the Twentieth Century is a landmark in a field of supreme importance. It is enlightening and therefore disenchanting in the most constructive sense. It brings together a fine group of scholars, mainly historians, to provide historical perspective on a topic that is sorely lacking it and shows the contingency of the deployment of human rights as a political language, the varied roots of that language, and the diversity of objects that it can address.' Donald Bloxham, University of Edinburgh 'This is an outstanding collection of essays on various aspects of human rights history in the twentieth century. The essays cover a wide range topically - from the intellectual linealogy of the human rights concept to its relationship to states in specific circumstances - chronologically and geographically and are of uniformly high quality. They make exciting reading and together contribute enormously to helping understand one of the most vital and important - but hitherto insufficiently studied - developments in recent history.' Akira Iriye, Harvard University 'This is an impressive collection on a timely and important topic. Its strengths are considerable, including both stimulating synthetic 'think-pieces' on the changing meanings of 'human rights' and archivally based studies of how, and with what results, 'rights-talk' was mobilized by different groups and in different situations.' Susan Pedersen, Columbia University 'At long last we have a book that takes a critical approach to the history of human rights. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann has put together a stellar cast of historians whose topics range widely around the globe. His own introduction raises the scholarship on human rights to a new level. This is the book that scholars and practitioners will need to read and debate.' Eric D. Weitz, University of Minnesota 'This volume makes an invaluable contribution to the study of human rights by treating them historically, foregoing familiar triumphalist narratives about steady progress in favour of detailed examinations of the contingent usage of human rights as political language and instrument.' Johannes Paulmann, History Workshop Journal Human Rights in the Twentieth Century is a landmark in a field of supreme importance. It is enlightening and therefore disenchanting in the most constructive sense. It brings together a fine group of scholars, mainly historians, to provide historical perspective on a topic that is sorely lacking it and shows the contingency of the deployment of human rights as a political language, the varied roots of that language, and the diversity of objects that it can address. - Donald Bloxham, University of Edinburgh This is an outstanding collection of essays on various aspects of human rights history in the twentieth century. The essays cover a wide range topically - from the intellectual linealogy of the human rights concept to its relationship to states in specific circumstances - chronologically and geographically and are of uniformly high quality. They make exciting reading and together contribute enormously to helping understand one of the most vital and important - but hitherto insufficiently studied - developments in recent history. - Akira Iriye, Harvard University This is an impressive collection on a timely and important topic. Its strengths are considerable, including both stimulating synthetic `think-pieces' on the changing meanings of `human rights' and archivally based studies of how, and with what results, `rights-talk' was mobilized by different groups and in different situations. - Susan Pedersen, Columbia University At long last we have a book that takes a critical approach to the history of human rights. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann has put together a stellar cast of historians whose topics range widely around the globe. His own introduction raises the scholarship on human rights to a new level. This is the book that scholars and practitioners will need to read and debate. - Eric D. Weitz, University of Minnesota This important collection brings together historians attempting to chronicle the contested path Enlightenment ideas about human rights took as they made their way across the centuries and into the heart of contemporary world politics. -G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann's introduction to the volume, well worth reading, is a sharp and compelling historiographical review that sets the tone for the rest of the collection in its effort to denaturalize human rights and recast them as a conflicted and conflicting language of political contestation. Most of the authors of these essays are writing books on the recent history of human rights, proof that the future of this field will be exciting indeed. -Barbara Keys, European History Quarterly ...this is an excellent contribution to the field of human-rights history. -Jeremy Rich, Canadian Journal of History
'Human Rights in the Twentieth Century is a landmark in a field of supreme importance. It is enlightening and therefore disenchanting in the most constructive sense. It brings together a fine group of scholars, mainly historians, to provide historical perspective on a topic that is sorely lacking it and shows the contingency of the deployment of human rights as a political language, the varied roots of that language, and the diversity of objects that it can address.' Donald Bloxham, University of Edinburgh 'This is an outstanding collection of essays on various aspects of human rights history in the twentieth century. The essays cover a wide range topically - from the intellectual linealogy of the human rights concept to its relationship to states in specific circumstances - chronologically and geographically and are of uniformly high quality. They make exciting reading and together contribute enormously to helping understand one of the most vital and important - but hitherto insufficiently studied - developments in recent history.' Akira Iriye, Harvard University 'This is an impressive collection on a timely and important topic. Its strengths are considerable, including both stimulating synthetic 'think-pieces' on the changing meanings of 'human rights' and archivally based studies of how, and with what results, 'rights-talk' was mobilized by different groups and in different situations.' Susan Pedersen, Columbia University 'At long last we have a book that takes a critical approach to the history of human rights. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann has put together a stellar cast of historians whose topics range widely around the globe. His own introduction raises the scholarship on human rights to a new level. This is the book that scholars and practitioners will need to read and debate.' Eric D. Weitz, University of Minnesota 'This volume makes an invaluable contribution to the study of human rights by treating them historically, foregoing familiar triumphalist narratives about steady progress in favour of detailed examinations of the contingent usage of human rights as political language and instrument.' Johannes Paulmann, History Workshop Journal
Author Information
Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann is Research Director at the Center for Research in Contemporary History, Potsdam, Germany, and has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. He is the author of the prizewinning The Politics of Sociability: Freemasonry and German Civil Society 1840–1918 (2007). Currently, he is preparing a short history of human rights and a book on Berlin in the wake of World War II.
