Origins of Global Humanitarianism - Religion, Empires, and Advocacy

"Whether lauded and encouraged or criticized and maligned, action in solidarity with culturally and geographically distant strangers has been an integral part of European modernity. Traversing the complex political landscape of early modern European empires, this book locates the historical origins of modern global humanitarianism in the recurrent conflict over the ethical treatment of non-Europeans that pitted religious reformers against secular imperial networks. Since the sixteenth-century beginnings of European expansion overseas and in marked opposition to the exploitative logic of predatory imperialism, these reformers - members of Catholic orders and, later, Quakers and other reformist Protestants - developed an ideology and a political practice in defense of the rights and interests of distant "others." They also increasingly made the question of imperial injustice relevant to growing "domestic" publics in Europe. A distinctive institutional model of long-distance advocacy crystallized out of these persistent struggles, becoming the standard weapon of transnational activists"--

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Caribbean beginnings, 1511-20; 2. Pro-indigenist advocacy in the Iberian Atlantic; 3. Religious radicalization and early antislavery; 4. Quaker reformers and the politicization of antislavery; 5. Forging an abolitionist network; 6. The emergence of a new model; Conclusion.

About the author

Peter Stamatov is currently Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University. His work has appeared in The American Sociological Review, Theory and Society and Contemporary Sociology, as well as in Hungarian and Brazilian scholarly journals. He is past winner of the Bendix Prize of the Comparative Historical Section of the American Sociological Association and was recipient of Cátedra de Excelencia (Excellence Chair) at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Stamatov, Peter (Yale University Stamatov, Stamatov Peter
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 23.12.2013
• EAN: 9781107021730
• ISBN: 978-1-107-02173-0
• No. of pages: 246
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Sociology, RELIGION / General, Social Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Social Theory, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / European, Religion: general, Colonialism & imperialism, Politics & government, Comparative Politics, Colonialism and imperialism