Reclaiming American Virtue by Barbara J Keys

Reclaiming American Virtue by Barbara J Keys

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Summary

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 because a cause both the left and right could embrace.

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Reclaiming American Virtue by Barbara J Keys

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 worlds judge to worlds policeman was a small step, and intervention in the name of human rights because a cause both the left and right could embrace.
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 US. -- Marilyn B. Young * Times Higher Education *
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 *
This timely, well-reasoned study demonstrates why Americans from across the political spectrum embraced international human rights as a foreign policy goal. * Publishers Weekly *
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
Barbara J. Keys is Associate Professor of U.S. and International History at the University of Melbourne.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780674724853
ISBN 10 0674724852
Title Reclaiming American Virtue
Author Barbara J Keys
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Harvard University Press
Year published 2014-02-17
Number of pages 368
Prizes Nominated for Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize 2015, Nominated for J. David Greenstone Book Prize 2014, Nominated for Pulitzer Prizes 2015, Nominated for Douglas Dillon Award 2014, Nominated for Ellis W. Hawley Prize 2015, Nominated for Merle Curti Award 2015, Nominated for Robert Jervis and Paul Schroeder Best Book Award 2015, Nominated for Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award 2015
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.