- Summary
- Between the Second World War and the early 1970s, political leaders, activists, citizens, protestors. and freedom fighters triggered a human rights revolution in world affairs. Stimulated particularly by the horrors of the crimes against humanity in the 1940s, the human rights revolution grew rapidly to subsume claims from minorities, women, the politically oppressed, and marginal communities across the globe. The human rights revolution began with a disarmingly simple idea: that every individual, whatever his or her nationality, political beliefs, or ethnic and religious heritage, possesses an inviolable right to be treated with dignity. From this basic claim grew many more, and ever since, the cascading effect of these initial rights claims has dramatically shaped world history down to our own times. The contributors to this volume look at the wave of human rights legislation emerging out of World War II, including the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Nuremberg trial, and the Geneva Conventions, and the expansion of human rights activity in the 1970s and beyond, including the anti-torture campaigns of Amnesty International, human rights politics in Indonesia and East Timor, the emergence of a human rights agenda among international scientists, and the global campaign female genital mutilation. The book concludes with a look at the UN Declaration at its 60th anniversary. Bringing together renowned senior scholars with a new generation of international historians, these essays set an ambitious agenda for the history of human rights. -- Publisher description
- Series
- Reinterpreting history
Reinterpreting history.
- Format
- Book
- Published
- Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2012
- Contents
-
Introduction: Human rights as history / Akira Iriye and Petra Goedde
Recent history of human rights / Kenneth Cmiel
Holocaust and the "human rights revolution" : a reassessment / G. Daniel Cohen
"Constitutionalizing" human rights : the rise and rise of the Nuremberg principles / Elizabeth Borgwardt
Human rights and the laws of war : the Geneva Convention of 1949 / William I. Hitchcock
Grams, calories, and food : languages of victimization, entitlement, and human rights in occupied Germany, 1945-1949 / Atina Grossmann
Are women "human"? : the UN and the struggle to recognize women's rights as human rights / Allida Black
Imperialism, self-determination, and the rise of human rights / Samuel Moyn
"The first right" : the Carter Administration, Indonesia, and the transnational human rights politics of the 1970s / Brad Simpson
Anti-torture politics : Amnesty International, the Greek junta, and the origins of the human rights "boom" in the United States / Barbara Keys
From the center-right : Freedom House and human rights in the 1970s and 1980s / Carl J. Bon Tempo
"For our Soviet colleagues" : scientific internationalism, human rights, and the Cold War / Paul Rubinson
Principles overwhelming tanks : human rights and the end of the Cold War / Sarah B. Snyder
Right to bodily integrity : women's rights as human rights and the international movement to end female genital mutilation, 1970s-1990s / Kelly J. Shannon
Is history a human right? : Japan's and Korea's troubles with the past / Alexis Dudden
Approaching the Universal Declaration of Human Rights / Mark Philip Bradley.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Iriye, Akira.
Goedde, Petra, 1964-
Hitchcock, William I.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: Human rights as history / Akira Iriye and Petra Goedde -- Recent history of human rights / Kenneth Cmiel -- Holocaust and the "human rights revolution" : a reassessment / G. Daniel Cohen -- "Constitutionalizing" human rights : the rise and rise of the Nuremberg principles / Elizabeth Borgwardt -- Human rights and the laws of war : the Geneva Convention of 1949 / William I. Hitchcock -- Grams, calories, and food : languages of victimization, entitlement, and human rights in occupied Germany, 1945-1949 / Atina Grossmann -- Are women "human"? : the UN and the struggle to recognize women's rights as human rights / Allida Black -- Imperialism, self-determination, and the rise of human rights / Samuel Moyn -- "The first right" : the Carter Administration, Indonesia, and the transnational human rights politics of the 1970s / Brad Simpson -- Anti-torture politics : Amnesty International, the Greek junta, and the origins of the human rights "boom" in the United States / Barbara Keys -- From the center-right : Freedom House and human rights in the 1970s and 1980s / Carl J. Bon Tempo -- "For our Soviet colleagues" : scientific internationalism, human rights, and the Cold War / Paul Rubinson -- Principles overwhelming tanks : human rights and the end of the Cold War / Sarah B. Snyder -- Right to bodily integrity : women's rights as human rights and the international movement to end female genital mutilation, 1970s-1990s / Kelly J. Shannon -- Is history a human right? : Japan's and Korea's troubles with the past / Alexis Dudden -- Approaching the Universal Declaration of Human Rights / Mark Philip Bradley.
