The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen

One of the major things that striked me about this book is Lauren's acknowledgement that the concept of human rights is not a completely Western creation. Traditions around the world, political, cultural, and religious, have stressed justice and equality. Lauren's treatment of Human Rights is quite thorough. I have to commend him for the fact that he does not value judgements on any of the events he described. He acknowledges the mistakes made but does not dwell on them. I also learned a lot of things about history that wasn't touched about in my history classes. I can say that I actually felt smarter reading this book. :)

"It seems fitting that Paul Lauren's book should have been published on the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In it, he provides the most comprehensive and exhaustively researched history of human rights ideas and the institutions to implement those ideas that has been written to date. I expect it will become an indispensable reference source for scholars and students of human rights" -- Political Science Quarterly

"This is a text which should be on the desk of every practioner in the field of human rights....absorbing." -- Dr. Colin Aikman, NZ International Review

"The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has loosed a spate of books on the academic world. Lauren's volume will count among the very best, with its thorough detail, wide range, and fascinating insights. This volume is a model of scholarship. It shows how visionaries and diplomats, NGOs and governments, moved from the almost totally unquestioned pre-WWII doctrine of domestic sovereignty to the current reality of global awareness of and obligations to internal human rights practices.....Belongs in the library of every college, citizen activist, or scholar interested in how one of humanity's transforming documents came into being." -- Choice

"The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights produced many commemorative events, among the most significant of which is this beautifully written and meticulously researched history of the idea of human rights. The author, a professor at the University of Montana, traces the streams of religious and philosophical thought that merged to become the modern human rights revolution and convincingly shows that the notion of human rights is global, ancient, and evolving....The book is extremely significant....To read in this book how far we have come and how far we still hae to go is an inspiration to the activist and a challenge to the idle." --American Journal of International Law