Handbook of human rights /

According to Cushman (Wellesley College), the book's editor, this large, multidisciplinary handbook is designed "to reconfigure and redefine" the field of human rights, rather than to reflect its prevailing theories, doctrines, and issues. The 61 chapters are organized around eight major human rights themes, including theoretical foundations, new approaches, world religions, alternative types, and law. Although a majority of the essays are by professors of law, politics, philosophy, and sociology, the book also includes chapters by scholars from such disciplines as anthropology, economics, foreign languages, psychology, and religion. The result is a wide-ranging theoretical exploration of alternative ways to conceive of human rights as well as how to respond to some of the major challenges in the theory and application of such rights. Given the theoretical, forward-looking nature of the handbook, the study will be of chief interest to scholars. It will have less appeal to lawyers, government officials, and policy makers responsible for advancing human rights. Recommended for large academic libraries. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections. M. Amstutz Wheaton College