Just Finished Reading: The Rights of Man by H G Wells (FP: 1940)

It all started with a letter to the Times of London. On the eve of war with Germany a group of intellectuals and social commentators, including the author of this work, asked themselves a deceptively simple question: What are we fighting this War for? They wanted to know, from the Chamberlin government at the time, exactly what they were going to ask their combatants and non-combatants alike to fight and die for. Was it for a continuation of the status quo? Was it to defend the Empire? Was it simply to live up to our obligations or even more simply an act of self-defence? Or was it something bigger than all of those things. Was it something grander? A vision of the future actually worth fighting and, if necessary, dying for? Were we indeed fighting for a better world to emerge after the conflict? A world where everyone, men and women, of all nationalities, creeds, religions and colours are treated with respect and dignity and where their governments are held to account by the rest of the world for their failings in this regard.

When the first letter resulted in a whole host of responses a second letter was drafted and published in the Times attempted to answer them, but clearly such a slow motion correspondence was inadequate to the task. Hence it was decided that Wells should write this book – published as the war got underway – to explain exactly what kind of world we could look forward to once the dust and settled and the wounds begun to heal. Unsurprisingly the original Penguin Press Special edition sold very well indeed and, as its popularity grew, eventually became one of the foundation documents to the eventual United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. That in itself was quite an achievement for what was essentially a ‘thought experiment’ on the eve of the greatest war in history.

I had no idea that Wells was involved in the famous UN Declaration. I’d never seen it referenced anywhere before and only came across this 2015 reprinted edition by accident whilst cruising Amazon. Although rather dry in tone and full of Well’s typical obsessions with world government it’s an interesting historical document with intriguing comments about the British government prior to Churchill becoming PM (of which much more later) and insights into the political beliefs of the time. A definite recommended read for anyone interested in the history of Rights and the cultural background and fallout from World War Two.