SOCIAL SCIENCES

Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World

by Samuel Moyn
Harvard Univ. Apr. 2018. 296p. notes. index. ISBN 9780674737563. $29.95; ebk. ISBN 9780674984820. POL SCI
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In this dense and enticing book, Moyn (law & history, Yale Univ.; The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History) traces the rise of international human rights and market fundamentalism and describes how the former has failed to do anything to stem the rising inequality wrought by the latter. Moyn discusses a human rights movement that originated with welfare states, and concerned with both social and economic justice, shifted its concern in the mid-20th century to the rights of individuals and the bad actions of states. The reframing of the movement in neoliberal terms has left the human rights movement unable to respond to poverty and extreme wealth disparity as human rights issues. Though Moyn's writing is crisp and his arguments well conceived, this work will prove daunting to many general readers.
VERDICT A surprising and important critique of the rise of human rights and essential contribution to the literature on the subject's history. Highly recommended for historians and other researchers as well as activists and humanitarians.
Reviewed by Rachel Bridgewater, Portland Community Coll. Lib., OR , May 01, 2018
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