HUMAN RIGHTS:  AMERICA’S DILEMMA
                               Co-listed with CF 3317
         Fulfills Human Diversity co-curricular requirement

HIST 3301-701C
Tue 6:30PM-9:20—126 Clements Hall
Prof. Rick Halperin—109 Clements Hall—214-768-3284    rhalperi@smu.edu

The study of human rights requires a sense of history and moral courage, for no nation or society in human history has been totally innocent of human rights abuses.  This course will examine certain violations of human rights within their historical context, and will also focus on America’s human rights record, with regard to its own policies and its relationship to human rights violations in other countries.  Attention will also be given to the evolution of both civil and human rights as entities within global political thought and practice. Students will be encouraged to rely on reasonable evidence and critical thinking when studying these historical controversies, rather than on biased accounts or emotional arguments.  From torture to terrorism and from slavery to genocide, students will discuss the current status of human rights in the world today.
 

Readings include: 1) Rebecca Cook, Human Rights for Women; 2) Dee Brown, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee; 3) John Conroy, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture; 4) Henry Friedlander, Origins of Nazi Genocide; 5) Ben Kiernan, Genocide & Resistance in Southeast Asia: Documentation, Denial, and Justice in Cambodia and East Timor; 6) Samantha Power, A Problem From Hell: America and Age of Genocide.