Human rights is a concept that only came to the forefront during the eighteenth century. 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. But why then? How did such a revelation come to pass? Lynn Hunt, Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at UCLA, offers illuminating answers to these questions in her critically acclaimed new book, Inventing Human Rights: A History, hailed as “a tour de force” by The New York Times. Her book concludes with a diagnosis of the state of human rights today.

 

Lynn Hunt is the author of Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution and co-author of Telling the Truth About History.

 

Courtesy of The Book Den, copies of Inventing Human Rights will be available for purchase and signing at this event.

 

The Wade Clark Roof Lecture on Human Rights was established by friends of the Walter H. Capps Center in honor of its founding director.

 

Presented by the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at UCSB and cosponsored by UCSB Affi liates, Offi ce of Community Relations, History Department, PAX 2100, Santa Barbara Association for UNESCO, Santa Barbara Chapter of the ACLU, United Nations Association of the U.S.A. Santa Barbara County Chapter.