Inventing Human Rights by Lynn Hunt (W.W Norton & Co.)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident" declares Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence. But after reading Lynn Hunt's new book one sees that these so-called truths concerning human rights are far from self evident and require citizen vigilance at all times.

The book's premise is that the concept of human rights only came to the forefront during the eighteenth. When the American Declaration of Independence declared "all men are created equal" and the French proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man during their revolution, they were bringing a new guarantee into the world.

The author who is a specialist in the French Revolution examines the question "Why then and how did such a revelation come to pass?" Hunt, who teaches history at UCLA, suggests that the creation of human rights were helped along by 18th century literary changes and such ideas as the rejection of torture as a means of finding out truth, and the spread of empathy. The book traces the rise of rights, their momentous eclipse in the nineteenth century, and their culmination as a principle with the United Nations' proclamation in 1948.

The book doesn't exhaust the topic by a long shot, but it's a pleasant read and a good introduction to a very timely topic.