The introductory essay explains the motivation for this discussion forum. After the success of Samuel Moyn's slim book on Utopian human rights, the American historians of human rights began to turn a blind eye to the whole period before the 1970s, including the Age of Enlightenment. The focus is now more on persons and events of the Utopian decade, and not on the history of human rights. "On the Spirit of Rights" is a recent monograph by an influential American historian, which may help reverse the tide. There follows a brief summary of the argument of the book and an introduction to the participants in the discussion. In his discussion of enlightenment authors, Edelstein focuses on the question whether they recognized natural rights after the social contract. He calls such an approach the "preservation regime" and identifies the physiocrats as authors of such a solution.

Keywords: historiography; human rights; Dan Edelstein; contemporary history; Enlightenment