From the reader's report:

The author argues that the demand for the just treatment of ordinary people is to be found in all traditions, even as each tradition finds its only peculiar ways to deflect attention and political will from the achievement of social justice. He is unfazed at crossing disciplinary and regional boundaries, nor is he daunted by the challenge of moving ever deeper into the past to reconstruct the lost history of people making common cause in the public good. At the same time, Powers is careful to avoid teleology and not argue that our understanding of social justice has come about because it is something we wanted, or worse, deserved. The great lesson of the book lies in demonstrating that the history of liberty is not a closed Western project, but an aspect of human experience that can be calmly and logically approached as much from China as from anywhere else.   

Timothy Brook