PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY - Human Rights, Class 5: Deviations & Challenges - Tyranny

November 27, 2018
7:00pm - 7:00pm

DEVIATIONS & CHALLENGES: Communism, Fascism and Totalitarianism.

In the twentieth century, liberal democracy came under assault from revolutionary ideas of both the left and the right. Communism and fascism offered radically alternative conceptions of society and human rights, and posed existential threats to the political order that had developed in Europe since the French Revolution. We will explore the development and meaning of these two ideologies and critically dissect the related concept of totalitarianism. We will also apply this historical lens to present-day challenges to liberal democracy.

Instructor Dr. Joshua Arthurs, is Associate Professor of History at West Virginia University and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. He is a cultural and social historian of twentieth-century Italy and Europe, with a focus on fascism and the far right; everyday life in war and dictatorship; and the politics of memory. His publications include Excavating Modernity: The Roman Past in Fascist Italy (Cornell University Press, 2012) and the edited volume The Politics of Everyday Life in Fascist Italy: Outside the State? (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017). Facebook Event.

The Ohio County Public Library's new eight-week People's University series, Human Rights, will explore the Sources, Critiques, Achievements, Extensions, Deviations, and Challenges of and in the development of what we collectively and, often generically, call "Human Rights." An impressive array of instructors from the fields of philosophy, history, sociology, law, and communications will cover different perspectives on the development of Human Rights from the Ancient Greeks, through the Enlightenment, American, and French Revolutions, to the present. Along the way, we will explore the achievements in Rights from the Magna Carta through the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as the strong critique presented by Karl Marx and the deviations brought on by tyranny in all of its forms. In the modern context, we will look at 20th Century Postwar developments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the idea of Economic Rights, consider the ongoing challenges of extending rights, from the American Civil Rights Movement, through Women's Suffrage, and LGBTQ Rights, while also comparing the American view of Rights to that of Europe and the rest of the world. Finally, we will consider the challenge of sentient non-humans, including Animal Rights and Artificial Intelligence.