Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann
"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."-
