Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry

by Michael Ignatieff

Book Overview

Michael Ignatieff draws on his extensive experience as a writer and commentator on world affairs to present a penetrating account of the successes, failures, and prospects of the human rights revolution. Since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, this revolution has brought the world moral progress and broken the nation-state's monopoly on the conduct of international affairs. But it has also faced challenges...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691114749
• ISBN13: 9780691114743
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, insightful

Ignatieff offers a measured, limited, and explicitly political, i.e., dialogic, nondogmatic, nonmetaphysical, pragmatic, approach to human rights advocacy and questions of international jurisdiction. Excellent, compelling, convincing. I can't say I'm entirely convinced, mind you. One surprise is that I found Appiah's essay--I am a great admirer of Appiah and, in my estimation, his reply to Taylor in _Multiculturalism: The Politics of Recognition_ is among the finest essays ever written--unconvincing, particularly with regards to the question of "rights and majorities." On this, see Jeremy Waldron's _Law and Disagreement_.