Reclaiming American virtue : the human rights revolution of the 1970s / Barbara J. Keys.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keys, Barbara J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human rights--Government policy--United States.

Human rights.

Human rights advocacy--United States.

Human rights advocacy.

United States--Foreign relations--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (324 p.)

Edition:

Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The American commitment to promoting human rights abroad emerged in the 1970's as a surprising response to national trauma. In this provocative history, Barbara Keys situates this novel enthusiasm as a reaction to the profound challenge of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Instead of looking inward for renewal, Americans on the right and the left looked outward for ways to restore America's moral leadership. Conservatives took up the language of Soviet dissidents to resuscitate the Cold War, while liberals sought to dissociate from brutally repressive allies like Chile and South Korea. When Jimmy Carter in 1977 made human rights a central tenet of American foreign policy, his administration struggled to reconcile these conflicting visions. Yet liberals and conservatives both saw human rights as a way of moving from guilt to pride. Less a critique of American power than a rehabilitation of it, human rights functioned for Americans as a sleight of hand that occluded from view much of America's recent past and confined the lessons of Vietnam to narrow parameters. From world's judge to world's policeman was a small step, and American intervention in the name of human rights would be a cause both liberals and conservatives could embrace.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction: Enter Human Rights

1. The Postwar Marginality of Universal Human Rights

2. Managing Civil Rights at Home

3. The Trauma of the Vietnam War

4. The Liberal Critique of Right-Wing Dictatorships

5. The Anticommunist Embrace of Human Rights

6. A New Calculus Emerges

7. Insurgency on Capitol Hill

8. The Human Rights Lobby

9. A Moralist Campaigns for President

10. “We Want to Be Proud Again”

Conclusion: Universal Human Rights in American Foreign Policy

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliographical Essay

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674726918

067472691X

9780674726031

0674726030

OCLC:

871257472