On the Spirit of Rights

A “superb” evaluation of the history of human rights “especially in [its] ability to situate ideas in their broadest cultural and political setting” (New York Review of Books).

By the end of the eighteenth century, politicians in America and France were invoking the natural rights of man to wrest sovereignty away from kings and lay down universal basic entitlements. Exactly how and when did “rights” come to justify such measures? In On the Spirit of Rights, Dan Edelstein answers this question by examining the complex genealogy of the rights that regimes enshrined in the American and French Revolutions.

With a lively attention to detail, he surveys a sprawling series of debates among rulers, jurists, philosophers, political reformers, writers, and others who were all engaged in laying the groundwork for our contemporary systems of constitutional governance.

From the Wars of Religion to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, On the Spirit of Rights is a sweeping tour through centuries of European intellectual history and an essential guide to our ways of thinking about human rights today.

“A tour de force: compelling, brilliant, and excitingly thought-provoking.” -Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London

“Provides a helpful new framework for understanding the evolution of human rights in Western society. Highly recommended.” —Choice

“Provocative and timely.” -Times Higher Education

“Clear, erudite, and urbane, Edelstein has shown once again why he is so highly regarded a historian of the eighteenth century’s place in Western intellectual history.” -Samuel Moyn, Yale University