HIST 392 - Race Law Compared: Twentieth-Century Central Europe and the United States

Institution:

Williams College

Subject:

History

Description:

This course explores the politics of law over the last century through case studies of "race law" in Central Europe and the United States. We begin with "Jim Crow," or "separate but equal," the American system of white supremacy which lasted until the 1960s. Next we study Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, which in less than ten years established a revolutionary system of German supremacy over Poles, Czechs, and others, including Jews--who were denied even the right to exist. In the second half of the course, we turn to liberal race law, to efforts at making races or peoples not less equal but more so. Here our cases are American Affirmative Action over the last forty years, and an experiment in imperial Austria with equality of rights between Czechs and Germans shortly before the First World War. Throughout the semester, we seek answers to basic questions. What is equality? What is racial difference? How has law been used to manage tensions between them?

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.williams.edu

Phone Number:

(413) 597-3131

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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