Positive Rights in a Republic of Talk will appeal to philosophers and social scientists interested in issues of rights and social justice, and to graduate students and journalists seeking a critical survey of the field. Innumerable recent books have addressed the issues of rights and social justice, but none combines the comprehensiveness, disinterestedness, and brevity found in this work. Positive Rights in a Republic of Talk is unique in its critical, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may approach; is untainted with special pleading for specific philosophical schools or social policies; is distinctive in its range, examining the views of classical as well as contemporary thinkers and trendy as well as more established approaches; is relentless in its confrontation of the abstract with the concrete; discusses positive rights in such contexts as health care, education, foreign aid, homelessness, welfare, and disaster relief policies; is distinctive in its prose, which is vivid, engaging, clear, occasionally funny, and never pompous or engorged with jargon; can be read and enjoyed by serious non-specialists as well as specialists.