The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the
Globalization Era. By Micheline R. Ishay. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2004. 459p. $24.95.
Are human rights universal or culturally bounded? From what religious
or philosophical premises are they derived? Do they conflict? Do they
empower or instead disempower the weak and oppressed? What is their fate
in an era of globalization? The key to answering these questions may lie
more in historical than conceptual investigation. This is the hunch that
inspires Micheline Ishay's remarkably learned and wide-ranging book.
It delivers forceful conclusions, which need no belaboring by the author,
since she allows them to emerge from the historical record. Among the
lessons we learn are that human rights should indeed be viewed as
universal; that they draw nourishment from diverse ideological sources;
that their meaning has always been contested, though not primarily along
cultural lines; that civil and political rights on the one hand and
socioeconomic rights on the other have historically been dependent on each
other; that the claim to national self-determination as a human right has
often been a cover for human rights violations; and that the idea of human
rights has regularly been reborn, often strengthened, after periods of
tyranny and oppression.