"The true history of human rights matters most of all, then, in order to confront their prospects today and in the future. If they do capture many longstanding values, it is equally critical to understand more honestly how and when human rights took shape as a widespread and powerful set of aspirations for a better and more humane world. After all, they have done far more to transform the terrain of idealism than they have the world itself."
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Academics from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesJews from the United StatesHarvard University facultyYale University faculty
Original Language: English
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Sources
The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2010), Prologue
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Moyn
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Samuel Moyn
Samuel Aaron Moyn (born 1972) is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale University, which he joined in July 2017. Previously, he was a professor of history at Columbia University for thirteen years and a professor of history and of law at Harvard University for three years. His research interests are in modern European intellectual history, with special interests in France and Germany, political and legal thought, historical and critical theory, and sometimes Jewish studies.
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