Introduction to the English edition; Part I. In the Shadow of the Great War: 1. Family and education, 1887–1914; 2. The Great War and its aftermath; 3. Cassin in Geneva; 4. From nightmare to reality: 1936–1940; Part II. The Jurist of Free France: 5. Free France: 1940–41; 6. World war: 1941–43; 7. Restoring the Republican legal order: the 'Comité Juridique'; 8. Freeze frame: René Cassin in 1944; Part III. The Struggle for Human Rights: 9. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: origins and echoes; 10. The vice-president of the Conseil d'Etat, 1944–1960; 11. A Jewish life; Conclusion; An essay on sources.
Presents a new interpretation of the history of human rights through the biography of a key player in the movement.
Jay Winter is Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale University. He has published widely on the history of the First World War, and is one of the founders of the Historial de la grande guerre, the international museum of the Great War in Péronne, France. He is author of Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge University Press, 1995). Antoine Prost is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is the world's leading authority on the history of French veterans' movements and the history of French education, and has written extensively on twentieth-century social and cultural history. He is co-author with Jay Winter of The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
'Winter and Prost have written a marvelous book about the struggle
for human rights as seen through the prism of the remarkable life
and achievements of René Cassin ranging throughout the entire
twentieth century. It is thoroughly researched, brilliantly
presented, honest and humane in its treatment, and sound in its
judgments. This is exactly the way that history and biography
should be written.' Paul Gordon Lauren, University of Montana
'At its best, biography provides a humanized window on to great
historical developments. Prost and Winter have done just this.
Along the way, readers are led through a fascinating narrative of
the history of human rights in the twentieth century. This fine
biography of Cassin is at least as much about Cassin's causes as
Cassin himself and Cassin himself would have been well pleased by
it.' Leonard V. Smith, Oberlin College
'Almost killed as a soldier in 1914, René Cassin was a lawyer who
became a veterans' rights advocate, architect of the UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and leading member of the French Jewish
community after the Holocaust. Two eminent historians combine their
strengths to paint a compelling portrait of this unique figure,
whose life encompassed the best and the worst of the twentieth
century.' John Horne, Trinity College Dublin
'… a thorough, engaging, and informative account of the life of
Rene Cassin … Well researched and written this book shows why
Cassin's mortal remains now rest in the Pantheon, the ultimate
French honor to the country's major figures. Highly recommended.
Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.'
D. P. Forsythe, Choice
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