Catherin Hanf Noren, The Camera of My Family
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976, p.171
|
Human Rights
in the
Twentieth Century
HIST 486Q
|
| Professors J. Quataert |
Spring 2000 |
This course confronts a paradox. The twentieth century has witnessed
extraordinary horror, from genocides, colonial, national and world wars,
to separatist and irredentist movements, ethnic cleansings and state violence.
Simultaneously, it has advanced increasingly universal principles of human
rights and established a set of institutional mechanisms for their implementation.
The course explores the troubled, uneven and contested nature of this struggle
to constitute universal rights in the context of nation-state sovereignty
and colonial and imperial histories and legacies. It traces the origins
of human rights back to natural rights philosophy (and implementation
through citizenship), to the efforts to establish international agreements
among nations over war and peace (in the context of imperialism and colonial
warfare) and to the declarations of human rights (given abuses by regimes)
embodied in UN documents from 1948 on. What constitutes human rights?
Who contributes to their defintition? How are they grounded--in theory
and practice--contested and re-negotiated? What makes up an international
community? Readings for the course are nearly exclusively primary
documents: natural rights philosophers; the Geneva Conventions; League
of Nations documents as well as UN declarations, memoirs and eye-witness
accounts. The course will have its own website.
Syllabus
This is the interactive version of the syllabus. You can use it to
email Professors and Teaching Assistants. It will link you to class notes
and assignments, as well as other information relevant to the course.
Maps
This is an index of maps available on this site.
Documents
This is an index of documents and tables relevant to the course.
Picture Index
This is an index of images available on this site.
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HOMEPAGE URL:history.binghamton.edu/hist486q/hist486q.htm
This page last updated: 10/26/99
Send Comments to: Prof.
Jean Quataert
