Published as part of Princeton University's The University Center for Human Values Series, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry is one of Michael Ignatieff's more contested works.

Expanding on his Tanner Lectures, Ignatieff argues for a deliberately modest understanding of human rights—not as a comprehensive moral doctrine or secular religion, but as a practical political language for limiting cruelty and protecting human dignity. The book rejects grand universalist claims while insisting that human rights remain indispensable as a minimum ethical framework in a fractured world.

Ignatieff examines the tensions between individual rights and collective self-determination, humanitarian intervention, nationalism, cultural relativism and state sovereignty, before engaging with responses from thinkers including Kwame Anthony Appiah, David Hollinger, Thomas Laqueur and Diane Orentlicher. Rather than offering settled conclusions, the essays expose the contradictions at the heart of liberal internationalism, making this an important work for readers interested in political philosophy, contemporary ethics, international law and debates surrounding the practical limits of universal human rights.

2003 third printing, first paperback edition. Clean copy in very good condition with light shelf wear and a sound binding.