The Rights of Spring: A Memoir of Innocence Abroad

Description

Human rights workers have achieved positions of formidable power. They have done much good. But the moral ambiguity of their work and questions about whether they can sometimes cause real harm endure. This book tackles those questions. It presents a tale of the bright sides and the dark sides of the humanitarian world built by good intentions.

David Kennedy is vice president for international affairs at Brown University and holds chairs in law at both Brown and Harvard Law School. His books include "The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism" and "Of War and Law" (both Princeton).

"[Kennedy] writes with great wisdom and experience about the idealism and the decline of the human rights movement, and the many obstacles it faces, most important, on the ground. He writes openly and eloquently about the unresolvable barriers between the victims and the people who act to help them."--Susan Salter-Reynolds, Los Angeles Times "Kennedy tackles questions about the role and usefulness of human-rights workers with a combination of narrative drive and honesty. This is a tale of the bright sides and the dark sides of the humanitarian world built by good intentions."--Times Higher Education