The Rights Revolution (Massey Lectures series)
by Michael Ignatieff
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With an updated preface by the author.Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, rights have become the dominant language of the public good around the globe. Indeed, rights have become the trump card in every argument. Long-standing fights for aboriginal rights, the issue of preserving the linguistic heritage of minorities, and same-sex marriage have steered our society into a full-blown rights revolution. This revolution is not only deeply controversial in show more North America, but is being watched around the world. Are group rights jeopardizing individual rights? When everyone asserts their rights, what happens to responsibilities? Can families survive and prosper when each member has rights? Is rights language empowering individuals while weakening community?Michael Ignatieff confronts these controversial questions head-on in The Rights Revolution, defending the supposed individualism of rights language against all comers. For Ignatieff, believing in rights means believing in politics, believing in deliberation rather than confrontation, compromise rather than violence. show lessTags
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I found Ignatieff’s arguments sound, especially when including the necessity of recognition of different peoples and empathy for different peoples along with rights equality. This is a sound basis for a national identity that is not based on ethnicity. I also liked his insistence that national identity on this basis of rights and recognition is constantly developing with the conversation among different peoples continuing. Much like an individual human never stops developing. Indeed, the moment development stops is when senescence and ultimately death sets in.
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Author Information
52+ Works 3,310 Members
Michael Ignatieff, born in Toronto in 1947. But at the age of 11, Ignatieff was sent to Toronto to attend Upper Canada College as a boarder in 1959. At UCC, Ignatieff was elected a school prefect as Head of Wedd's House, was the captain of the varsity soccer team, and served as editor-in-chief of the school's yearbook. As well, Ignatieff show more volunteered for the Liberal Party during the 1965 federal election by canvassing the York South riding. He resumed his work for the Liberal Party in 1968, as a national youth organizer and party delegate for the Pierre Elliott Trudeau party leadership campaign. He then went on to continue his education at the University of Toronto and Harvard and Cambridge universities. In 1976, Ignatieff completed his Ph.D in History at Harvard University. He was granted a Cambridge M.A. by incorporation in 1978 on taking up a fellowship at King's College there. Michael Ignatieff has written television programs for the BBC, novels, and works of nonfiction. He has also authored essays and reviews for several publications including The New York Times. From 1990-93, he wrote a weekly column on international affairs for The Observer. His family memoir, The Russian Album, received Canada's Governor General Award in 1988. His second novel, Scar Tissue, was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1993. Other nonfiction works include A Just Measure of Pain, the Penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution and the Warrior's Honor: Ethic War and the Modern Conscience. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
CBC Massey Lectures (2000)
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2000 (Toronto, House of Anansi Press) (Toronto, House of Anansi Press); 2006 (2nd edition, Berkeley, CA, House of Anansi Press) (2nd edition, Berkeley, CA, House of Anansi Press)
- Important places
- Canada; Québec, Canada
- Disambiguation notice
- Full title (2000): The rights revolution / Michael Ignatieff
Classifications
- Genres
- Politics and Government, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Philosophy
- DDC/MDS
- 333.0971 — Society, government, & culture Economics Economics of land and energy History North America
- LCC
- JC599 .C2 .I38 — Political Science Political theory Political theory. The state. Theories of the state Purpose, functions, and relations of the state
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 185
- Popularity
- 176,863
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.29)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
