Volume 4, No 2 (2021) 
Date of publication: 12-05-2021 

  DOI: http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.4252  
                                 ISSN 2535-5406 

 
 

 

 

BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS 

A human rights sampler 

 
 

Quataert, J.H., & L. Wildenthal. (Eds.) (2020). The Routledge History of Human 
Rights. London and New York: Routledge. 688 pp., GBP£190.00 (Hardback) ISBN: 
9781138784338; GBP£35.99 (eBook) ISBN: 9780429324376. 
 

 
Reviewed by Robert Pyne 
St. Norbert College, USA 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Pyne: robert.pyne@snc.edu  

mailto:robert.pyne@snc.edu


                                                                                                                                        HRER Book and Media Reviews 

106 

 

BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS 
 
A human rights sampler 
DOI: http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.4252  
ISSN 2535-5406 
 
 
Quataert, J.H., & L. Wildenthal. (Eds.) (2020). The Routledge History of Human 
Rights. London and New York: Routledge. 688 pp., GBP£190.00 (Hardback) ISBN: 
9781138784338; GBP£35.99 (eBook) ISBN: 9780429324376. 
 
Reviewed by  
Robert Pyne 
St. Norbert College, USA. 
robert.pyne@snc.edu  
 
Editors Jean H. Quataert and Lora Wildenthal describe The Routledge History of 
Human Rights as ‘an open-ended and contingent history of human rights’ ( p. 1). Both 
accomplished historians, Quataert and Wildenthal do not regard this volume as a 
definitive account, or even a consistent narrative. Rather, it is a collection of essays 
on ‘an array of human rights themes’, providing ‘a sampling of the state of the field in 
human rights history’ (p. 1). Designed for use primarily as an ebook, allowing faculty 
adopters to assign, or readers to purchase, any combination of chapters, the volume 
surely achieves these modest goals. However, the net effect is not unlike the 
published proceedings of an academic conference. The reader is treated to many 
excellent papers, grouped topically and chronologically, and each one reflects the 
exhaustive research of a fine scholar on an appropriately narrow topic. Importantly, 
the contributions are both geographically and thematically diverse. However, the 
final product is not as comprehensive as its title and length might suggest.  
 The editors write: 
  
 Our collection emphasizes non-linear versions of history, law, and the voices 
 of globally dispersed activists. … [I]t is important to us not to foreclose the 
 significance of particular episodes by folding them into a larger narrative that 
 could reinscribe familiar understandings and power relations, or imply 
 inevitability. (p. 1) 
 
They self-consciously avoid ‘narratives of seemingly inevitable progress’ and ‘turns 
of phrase that imply that human rights are passed like a torch from generation to 
generation, that is, remain stable in content over time and place’ (p. 1). Nobody would 
seriously advocate for such a static understanding of human rights discourse, but 
whatever imagined foil is here opposed, the editors provide little explanation of the 
narrative framework they seek to deconstruct. Most of the contributors see their 
essays correcting what they perceive to be a common point of view (e.g., the 
revisionist history of Samuel Moyn, 2012, 2019), or filling some lacuna in 
contemporary scholarship. However, more nuanced and synthetic histories of 
human rights, such as those by Jack Donnelly (e.g., 2013) and Micheline Ishay (2006), 
are, for the most part, not taken into consideration in this volume.  

mailto:robert.pyne@snc.edu


HRER Book and Media Reviews 

107 

 

 The editors offer assurance that the essays are ‘comprehensible to those 
encountering the subject matter for the first time’ (p. 1), but that gives the reader too 
much credit in many cases. These essays are not written for beginning students, at 
least not at the undergraduate level. Still, those who draw from The Routledge History 
while framing their own classroom discussions of human rights will find many 
excellent pieces from which to choose. Some of the standouts include Benjamin E. 
Brockman-Hawe’s chapter on 19th century commissions of inquiry in the Balkans, 
Mairi S. MacDonald’s work on human rights advocacy in the Congo, and Marie 
Sandell’s essay on transnational women’s activism between the World Wars. Rachel 
A. George’s contribution on Islam and the ratification of UN human rights treaties is 
thorough, carefully nuanced, and rich in practical implications, as is the paper by 
Eileen Boris and Jill Jensen on the International Labour Organization and women’s 
rights. Pitman B. Potter’s chapter provides an excellent overview on the state of 
human rights in the People’s Republic of China, and Afiya Shehrbano Zia describes 
human rights progress in Pakistan through the lens of Asma Jahangir’s work as an 
activist and attorney. Other readers will no doubt highlight different chapters, and 
that is one of the strengths of this volume. With its breadth of topics and customizable 
electronic format, the text is highly adaptable.  
 But why this text, and why these essays, rather than others? The editors do 
not claim that these selections are particularly special, providing only a ‘sampling of 
the state of the field’, but what might readers be expected to glean from this sample? 
The volume demonstrates that human rights scholarship continues to thrive within 
a wide variety of academic disciplines, though, as Sarita Cargas (2019) has argued, 
human rights is arguably emerging as a discipline of its own. The book also contains 
remarkable geographic range, which may be one of the best arguments for using it in 
the classroom, at least as a supplemental text, and recommending it to those studying 
human rights. Quataert and Wildenthal have assembled a diverse group of scholars 
whose work may be unknown to many of us in spite of their evident academic 
qualifications. They write with historical specificity, highlighting non-Western 
sources and struggles, and providing perspectives on human rights history that many 
of us would not otherwise easily encounter. At a time when both students and faculty 
are eager to include these kinds of sources in an anti-racist academic curriculum—
all the more appropriate in the study of human rights—The Routledge History of 
Human Rights makes a substantial contribution. However, by assuming that readers 
are already familiar with more established narratives and self-consciously omitting 
classic texts, this volume will disappoint on its own. It will best be paired with other 
readings, like Ishay’s Human Rights Reader (2007) (also published by Routledge) for 
a more comprehensive approach. 
 

References 
Donnelly, J. (2013). Universal human rights in theory and practice (3rd ed). Ithaca, 
 NY: Cornell University Press.  
 https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801467493  

Ishay, M. (2007). Human rights reader: Major political essays, speeches and 
documents from ancient times to the present (2nd ed). London: Routledge 
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203941003  

 

 

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801467493
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203941003


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Ishay, M. (2008). The history of human rights: From ancient times to the globalization 
era (2nd edition). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 
https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520934917  

Moyn, S. (2012). The last utopia: Human rights in history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard 
 University Press.  
 https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjk2vkf  

Moyn, S. (2019). Not enough: Human rights in an unequal world. Cambridge, MA: 
 Harvard University Press.  
 https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674984806  
 

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520934917
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjk2vkf
https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674984806