"Essays retrace the historical development of rights in the West, assessing the influence of Locke, Burke, and the authors of the Declaration of Independence to clarify the experience of rights within the Western tradition, showing that rights need to be rethought so that they may again truly serve the human good"--Provided by publisher.

Introducing readers to the theory and practice of human rights, this text emphasises how the experiences of the victims of human rights violations are related to legal, philosophical and social-scientific approaches to human rights.

"In a book that is at once passionate and provocative, Stephen Hopgood argues, against the conventional wisdom, that the idea of universal human rights has become not only ill adapted to current realities but also overambitious and unresponsive. A shift in the global balance of power away from the United States further undermines the foundations on which the global human rights regime is based. American decline exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies...

Describes the history of human rights and highlights various violations of human rights, including discrimination, racism, genocide, and torture.