'Lacroix and Pranchère offer a brilliant analysis of the long history of human rights skepticism in European political thought. They also bring out the richness and robustness of the idea of human rights, and rehabilitate its democratic and emancipatory potential. A historical, critical and philosophical tour de force and a deeply original contribution to a major contemporary debate in political theory and practice.' Cécile Laborde, University of Oxford
Acknowledgements; Introduction: from the rights of man to human rights?; 1. Critiques of human rights in contemporary thought; 2. Human rights against inheritance: a conservative critique: Edmund Burke; 3. Human rights versus social utility: a progressivist critique: Jeremy Bentham and Auguste Comte; 4. Human rights against the rights of God: a theologico-political critique: Louise de Bonald and Joseph de Maistre; 5. The rights of man against human emancipation: a revolutionary critique: Karl Marx; 6. Human rights against politics: a nationalist critique: Carl Schmitt; 7. The 'right to have rights': revisiting Hannah Arendt; Conclusion; Index.