The World Reimagined: Americans and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Human Rights in History)

"Concerns about rights in the United States have a long history, but the articulation of global human rights in the twentieth century was something altogether different. Global human rights offered individuals unprecedented guarantees beyond the nation for the protection of political, economic, social and cultural freedoms. The World Reimagined explores how these revolutionary developments first became believable to Americans in the 1940s and the 1970s through everyday vernaculars as they emerged in political and legal thought, photography, film, novels, memoirs and soundscapes. Together, they offered fundamentally novel ways for Americans to understand what it means to feel free, culminating in today's ubiquitous moral language of human rights. Set against a sweeping transnational canvas, the book presents a new history of how Americans thought and acted in the twentieth-century world." -- Provided by the publisher For Readers Who Want To Understand Why Human Rights Has Become The Moral Language Of Our Time. It Explores The Making Of A Twentieth Century Global Human Rights Imagination And Its American Vernaculars In Times Of War, Decolonization And Globalization During The Transformative Decades Of The 1940s And 1970s--provided By Publisher. Introduction: How It Feels To Be Free -- Part One. The 1940s -- At Home In The World -- The Wartime Rights Imagination -- Beyond Belief -- Conditions Of Possibility -- Part Two. The 1970s -- Circulations -- American Vernaculars I -- American Vernaculars Ii -- The Movement -- Coda: The Sense Of An Ending. Mark Philip Bradley, University Of Chicago. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Half title 3 Series 4 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Figures 11 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction: How It Feels to be Free 21 Part One: The 1940s 33 1 At Home in the World 39 2 The Wartime Rights Imagination 61 3 Beyond Belief 90 4 Conditions of Possibility 112 Part Two: The 1970s 143 5 Circulations 148 6 American Vernaculars I 176 7 American Vernaculars II 200 8 The Movement 218 Coda: The Sense of an Ending 247 Notes 261 Index 315 This book shows readers how and why human rights have become the moral language of our time. It explores the making of a twentieth-century global human rights imagination and its American vernaculars in times of war, decolonization and globalization during the transformative decades of the 1940s and 1970s. This book uncovers how human rights gained meaning and power for Americans in the 1940s, the 1970s and today