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Author:   Christian Olaf Christiansen (Aarhus Universitet, Denmark)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009551410

ISBN 10:   1009551418
Pages:   262
Publication Date:   20 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: human rights and distributive justice; Part I. Internationalizing Human Rights: 1. War aims: Ralph Bunche, H. G. Wells and 'world social democracy'; 2. A 'Just share in social progress:' revisiting Hersch Lauterpacht; 3. Bridging the cold war divide: Ralph Bunche, Gunnar Myrdal and Moses Moskowitz advocating rights in the 1950s; Part II. Criticizing Global Inequalities Through Human Rights: 4. Deploying human rights against global inequalities in the 1960s: catholics and pan Africanists; 5. The 'Widening gap' as a threat to human rights: Manouchehr Ganji; Part III. Legitimizing Human Rights: 6. The derailment of a dream: Amartya Sen and the Sisyphean task of defending rights; Epilogue; Acknowledgements; Selected bibliography; Index.

Reviews

'Christiansen provides an original and insightful account of the vicissitudes of efforts to ensure that economic and social rights have been taken seriously within the international human rights. He sheds valuable new light on the vital role of Global South actors in those endeavours.' Philip Alston, NYU 'Weaving together diverse stories of how differently situated human rights advocates contested global inequality, this book provides a rich tapestry of how rights frameworks have been mobilised and imagined. In our contemporary moment, characterised by obscene levels of global inequality and ecological crisis, this intellectual history contains important resources for working towards redistributive justice.' Julia Dehm, La Trobe Law School 'Christian Christiansen's far-reaching study represents a major revision to human rights history and points the way toward a new vision for how economic and social rights might still be reclaimed in the struggle to more equitably share what he beautifully describes as the cumulative fruits of humanity's progress.' Mark Goodale, author of Reinventing Human Rights 'Christian Olaf Christiansen has provided scholars with a new road map for the global intellectual history of human rights and given a timely reminder of the ways in which modern human rights emerged as a criticism of material inequality and poverty. The book´s insights into global intellectual histories of topics including distributive justice, limitarianism, and solidarity, offer lessons for today´s unequal world.' Julia McClure, University of Glasgow 'Comprehensive, enlightening, nuanced. Christiansen makes a powerful and persuasive case: Ideas matter. Human rights matter. The UN's efforts to defend economic and social rights matter.' Thomas G. Weiss, The CUNY Graduate Center

Author Information

Christian Olaf Christiansen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas at Aarhus University. He is an intellectual historian focused on historicizing issues of pressing contemporary concern, including human rights.

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