History C187: The History and Practice of Human Rights (Fall 2011, UC Berkeley) | History and Human Culture

History C187: The History and Practice of Human Rights

History C187: The History and Practice of Human Rights (Fall 2011, UC Berkeley). Instructor: Professor Thomas W. Laqueur. What are human rights? Where did they originate and when? Who retains them, and when are we obliged to defend them? This course examines the historical development of human rights to the present day, focusing on, but not confined to, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More than a history of origins, it explores the relationships between human rights and other crucial themes in the history of the modern era.

Lecture 01 - Introduction

Lecture 02 - Human Rights Before "Human Rights"

Lecture 04 - Human Rights - 18th Century

Lecture 05 - 19th Century Humanitarianism and Humanitarian Intervention

Lecture 06 - Human Rights and Ethics in War

Lecture 07 - Imperial Contradictions: Claims of Progress and the Facts of Death

Lecture 08 - The Case of Female Genital Mutilation

Lecture 09 - The American Genocide, Guest Lecturer: Michelle Tusan

Lecture 10 - Anti-Human Rights

Lecture 12 - Internal Criminal Tribunals

Lecture 13 - Witnessing, Human Rights and Humanitarian Activism

Lecture 14 - Human Rights Culture I: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Lecture 15 - Human Rights Culture

Lecture 17 - Human Rights in the International Politics of States

Lecture 20 - The Corpus Delecti and the Names of the Dead

Lecture 21 - Can Human Rights Stop Mass Incarceration?

Lecture 23 - Human Rights Claims by Gays & Lesibians

Lecture 27 - The Work of Human Rights Today, AMNESTY International

Lecture 28 - 10 Things I hoped You Learned