Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s

Barbara J. Keys

Published by Harvard University Press 2014

Reclaiming American Virtue

The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s

Barbara J. Keys

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674726031

Overview
Contents

About this book

Human rights emerged as a reaction to the Vietnam trauma, Barbara Keys shows. Instead of looking inward for renewal, Americans looked outward for ways to restore their moral leadership. From world's judge to world's policeman was a small step, and intervention in the name of human rights became a cause both the left and right could embrace.

Author / Editor information

Keys Barbara J. :

Barbara J. Keys is Associate Professor of U.S. and International History at the University of Melbourne.

Reviews

A genuine masterpiece of the historian's craft, Reclaiming American Virtue shows how human rights were a tonic for the country's self-confidence. America's fusion of moral principle and global violence in today's world no longer looks the same after this revelatory book.
-- Samuel Moyn, author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History

The most comprehensive account of a central issue of U.S. foreign policy during an exceptionally important decade, Reclaiming American Virtue is clearly a major achievement.

-- Lars Schoultz, author of Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America

Today, human rights and global interdependence are accepted as an essential basis for national and international affairs. Barbara Keys shows precisely when, where, and how this complete reconceptualization of America's role in the world came about. A major contribution to the growing body of literature in human rights history.
-- Akira Iriye, editor of Global Interdependence: The World after 1945

This timely, well-reasoned study demonstrates why Americans from across the political spectrum embraced international human rights as a foreign policy goal.
-- Publishers Weekly

An accessible, searching study of an idea that seems to have been forgotten in favor of the steely, cost-cutting pragmatism of today.
-- Kirkus Reviews

Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s is a vigorous and engaging account of the emergence of the concept and its non-linear journey from lip-serving political piety to an integral, if contradictory, component of the foreign policy of the U.S.
-- Marilyn B. Young Times Higher Eeducation

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: Enter Human Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Postwar Marginality of Universal Human Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Managing Civil Rights at Home Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
3. The Trauma of the Vietnam War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
4. The Liberal Critique of Right-Wing Dictatorships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
5. The Anticommunist Embrace of Human Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
6. A New Calculus Emerges Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
7. Insurgency on Capitol Hill Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
8. The Human Rights Lobby Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
9. A Moralist Campaigns for President Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
10. “We Want to Be Proud Again” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Conclusion: Universal Human Rights in American Foreign Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Bibliographical Essay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 368

eBook

Published: February 17, 2014
ISBN: 9780674726031