Citoyennetés et droits de l'Homme

Description

Citizenship and Human Rights illustrates the third singularity of the Mediterranean compared to other civilization basins, such as those of Southeast Asia or Mesoamerica. This volume focuses on the key moments and principles of the history of citizenship since antiquity. In Greece, 2500 years ago, being a citizen and participating in public and political life was a privilege.
In the Roman Empire, as it expanded, citizenship included the inhabitants of newly conquered areas, with the exception of women and slaves. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, other forms of citizenship flourished. In the medieval Italian cities, for example, a new type of citizen was born, with various rights and protected by local privileges. In the eighteenth century, the idea emerged that to be human was also to be a citizen, whether one was male or female, rich or poor.
However, while the Enlightenment and the French Revolution were directly linked to the desire to establish human and civil rights, not all subsequent revolutions, rooted in social or colonial contexts, embraced this objective. The links made in the book between the historians' articles and the works presented provide opportunities to reflect on the different forms of citizenship and their relationship to other issues such as gender, defence and health.