> The view of rights as being unalienable is distinctly American That's quite a claim. > Englishman Thomas Hobbes expounded on this and thusly planted the see

> The view of rights as being unalienable is distinctly American That's quite a claim. > Englishman Thomas Hobbes expounded on this and thusly planted the seeds of the American idea. John Locke is the usual go-to figure, no? > Such seeds didn’t take root in England at the time Are you sure? “17th-century English philosopher John Locke discussed natural rights in his work, identifying them as being "life, liberty, and estate (property)", and argued that such fundamental rights could not be surrendered in the social contract. In Britain in 1689, the English Bill of Rights and the Scottish Claim of Right each made illegal a range of oppressive governmental actions.[18] Two major revolutions occurred during the 18th century, in the United States (1776) and in France (1789), leading to the United States Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen respectively, both of which articulated certain human rights. Additionally, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 encoded into law a number of fundamental civil rights and civil freedoms.”