Throughout the ages, human beings have struggled for justice by claiming rights of one kind or another. This unit examines this phenomenon from the late eighteenth century, when the concept of 'the rights of man' came to the fore, to the present day, when the ideal of 'human rights' seems to have triumphed. We will trace both changes and continuities across the modern age by paying special attention to the advocates of rights, their reasons for campaigning, the ways they defined and legitimated the rights they claimed, and the means they adopted to win hearts and minds. -- Course Website
Instructor: Professor Bain Attwood
Prerequisites: First year history sequence in History, Human rights theory or International studies
