The Rights of History: Enlightenment and Human Rights

Lately, the study of human rights has become a dangerous ground for historians—above all in Europe. In his celebrated Le Sottisier, Gustave Flaubert ironically defined history as a dangerous knowledge for teachers and students; yet, he was not fully aware in his time of all the rivalries and pretentions that scholars from other fields—like anthropology, law, sociology, political theory—would raise. In fact, those scholars seem to be frightened when seeing the ranks of the historians approaching a field they consider their own property. This is certainly the case of human rights.