After Evil: A Politics of Human Rights (Columbia Studies in Political Thought / Political History)
"After Evilis a large, even magisterial book. . .  This ambitious and persuasive book charts human rights as an ethical philosophy, a symbolic relation between subjects, and a pervasive ideology of our own relationship to history."--Daniel Worden,Postmodern CultureThe conclusion that Meister drives home is that human rights as they are understood today reconcile us to the given rather than offering grander visions of justice.--Joe Hoover,Journal of Intervention and StatebuildingMeister's counterhegemonic deconstruction of the ostensible apolitical post-Cold War discourse of human rights to its roots in the conservative interests of global liberal capitalism is sure to resonate with any critical social theorist.  -- Milan Babík,Political TheoryEspecially rich in exploring the psychological and religious dimensions of human rights practices and discourses, and in listening to those voices, including Islamist ones, that are currently viewed as opposed to human rights, thus helping to render them intelligible.(Choice)Original, subtle, and provocative.(Debra L. DelaetID: International Dialogue1900-01-00)After Evilis a large, even magisterial book.... [It] aims to document human rights discourse... as an ideology that transcends any particular instance and operates as a symbolic logic, governing not just international law but our own emotional lives....This ambitious and persuasive book charts human rights as an ethical philosophy, a symbolic relation between subjects, and a pervasive ideology of our own relationship to history.(Daniel WordenPostmodern Culture1900-01-00)Robert Meister's central idea is that human rights since the end of the Second World War have provided a limited and problematic response to the phenomenon of political evil -- particularly slavery, colonialism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.... The conclusion that Meister drives home is that human rights as they are understood today reconcile us to the given rather than offering grander visions of justice.... Human rights as we know them today are explicitly intended to limit the promise of justice -- both because the horrors of the twentieth century suggest that such promise might come at too high a cost, and because the promise of justice as greater political and social equality is opposed by the post-Cold War powers.(Joe HooverJournal of Intervention and Statebuilding)Thoughtful and thought-provoking.(Claudia CardHolocaust and Genocide Studies1900-01-00)[After Evil] contains many brilliant, perceptive and thought provoking insights.(Survival1900-01-00)