ISBN:
9789400741836
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (XXXIII, 520p, digital)
Series Statement:
SpringerLink
Series Statement:
Bücher
Parallel Title:
Buchausg. u.d.T. Davidson, Alastair, 1939 - The immutable laws of mankind
Keywords:
Social sciences
;
Political science Philosophy
;
History
;
Social Sciences
;
Social sciences
;
Political science Philosophy
;
History
;
Menschenrecht
;
Geschichte
Abstract:
Alastair Davidson
Abstract:
The key question for the history of universal human rights is why it took so long for them to become established as law. The main theme of this book is that the attainment of universal human rights required heroic struggle, first by individuals and then by ever-increasing numbers of people who supported those views against the major historical trends. Universal human rights are won from a hostile majority by outsiders. The chapters in the book describe the milestones in that struggle. The history presented in this book shows that, in most places at most times, even today, for concrete material reasons a great many people oppose the notion that all individuals have equal rights. The dominant history since the 1600s has been that of a mass struggle for the national-democratic state. This book argues that this struggle for national rights has been practically and logically contradictory with the struggle for universal rights. It would only be otherwise if there were free migration and access to citizenship on demand by anybody. This has never been the case. Rather than drawing only on European sources and being limited to major literary figures, this book is written from the Gramscian perspective that ideas mean little until they are taken up as mass ideologies. It draws on sources from Asia and America and on knowledge about mass attitudes, globally and throughout history.
Description / Table of Contents:
The Immutable Laws of Mankind; Acknowledgments; Contents; Prologue; Contents; The Sparrow's Eye View; Methods; Periodisation; Before the Beginning; Chapter 1: A World Without Rights; Everyday Life in the Middle Ages; Apocalyptic Horseman I: Famine; Apocalyptic Horseman II: Plague; Apocalyptic Horseman III: War; The Mafia World of the Middle Ages; Human and Beast: Worlds of Similitude; Asking Questions: The Courts and Torture; A Myopic World: Humanity Stops at the Stile; Germs of an Idea: Universal Humanity; Pie in the Sky; Justice Is Nowhere; Conclusions; Chapter 2: Eyes Turned Heavenwards
Description / Table of Contents:
Continuity and ChangeThe Reformation and the Individual; The New Social Contract; A National-Popular Rule of Law; The Common Law; The Dutch Model; The British Version; Belonging to the Church; The Bill of Rights; The First Milestone; Hobbes; The Popular Sovereign or the Sovereign People; No Rights for Those Who Not Belong to the Nation; Sectaries and Other Dissidents; Rights in International Spaces: Grotius; Exporting the National-Popular Rule of Law: 1689 and America; American Particularism; Conclusions; Chapter 3: When the World Was New; When the World Was New
Description / Table of Contents:
Discovering the Other: The AmericasMildness: A Feminine Virtue; The Other and International Law; Imperialism: A Denial of Rights for All Humans; Learning from the Other: India; India Before the Raj; Suttee; Learning from the Other: China; Learning from the Other: Chinese Thought; Conclusions; Chapter 4: The Open Republic or Kafka's Doorman; Early French Criticism of Locke; The Absolute Monarchy and Rights; The New Bourgeoisie and National-Popular Rights; The Peasant Majority and Rights; Towards the Democratic National Model of Rights; The Etats Généraux and Rights
Description / Table of Contents:
Universal Human Rights for the First TimeConclusions; Chapter 5: Jack Is Master in His Own House: The Triumph of the Nation; Rights and the French Citizen; Robespierre, Jacobinism and the National-Popular Revolution; The Beginning of the End; Two Steps Backwards; Nationalism Ends British Liberties; Exporting Rights at Bayonet Point; The Napoleonic Reaction; Italy and Rights; Rights and Cultural Difference; The Parthenopean Republic and Rights; Hegemony and Universal Human Rights; Peoples and Nations; Conclusions; Chapter 6: Rousseau
Description / Table of Contents:
Universal Human Rights and the Revolution: The Conservative OrthodoxyRousseau and Hegemony; Rousseau and Democracy; Rousseau and Human Rights; Conclusions; Chapter 7: Human Rights and the Working Class; The Contradictions of the National-Popular; Global Migration; The Stake-Less Sufferers: The Working Class after 1815; Parliamentary Reform and the Workers; France; Britain; Nationalism and the Working Class; France and the June Revolution of 1848; National Rights for the Working Class; Going it Alone: Trade Unions; Conclusions; Chapter 8: The Excluded: Women
Description / Table of Contents:
National Popular Democracy and Women
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
DOI:
10.1007/978-94-007-4183-6
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