How does Hunt use primary sources to establish a relationship between cultural changes (such as the rise of the epistolary novel and the expectation of silent listening at musical performances) and political or legal reforms? Do these political changes inform cultural changes as well as the reverse?

How does the book’s structure, moving from the private world of reading and feeling to the public world of declarations and laws, shape its argument about the relationship between cultural “sensibility” and political thought?

To what extent does Hunt’s focus on “imagined empathy” and individual autonomy overlook the economic and class-based motivations of the revolutionary era?

How does Hunt find the origins of 20th-century conflicts in the rights revolutions of the 18th century? Does the book offer hope that the dream of universal human rights will ever be achieved?

What new forms of art and expression in the 21st century are reshaping political reality as the rise of the epistolary novel did in the 18th century? Are these changes likely to lead to greater equality and freedom, or to have the opposite effect?

How does “the paradox of self-evidence” explain the deep contradictions of the revolutionary era, such as Thomas Jefferson’s claim that “all men are created equal” despite his status as an enslaver?

Trace the transformation of “honor” as described in Chapter 3 of Inventing Human Rights. How did the new penal code, a direct consequence of the Declaration, demolish an aristocratic, lineage-based concept of honor and replace it with a universal, civic one defined by a citizen’s relationship to the law?

How does Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s status as an author of both political philosophy (The Social Contract) and sentimental novels (Julie) exemplify the claim that the invention of human rights required a fusion of reason and emotion?