You raise some interesting points, Sara. I wonder about the tradition of storytelling too. Maybe the truth is that Hunt is wrong and that really human rights before the end of WWII was nothing more than just the ruling elite looking out for number one. Just read the Magna Carta for example. That is an early document looked upon as a major moment in human rights because we got the rule of law from it BUT it was really about land owners protecting their own land interests from abuse from the King and had no bearing on the lower economic classes of society.