EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
A History of the World since 1300
Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
https://www.coursera.org/#course/wh1300
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
Human Rights and the Meaning of Membership within Societies
Notes taken on May 12, 2015 by Edward Tanguay
the French Revolution changed the nature of imperial rivalry
now total wars were fought over the very existence of the colonies within empires
Goya and many other painters
wars are now between peoples for peoples
bodies were now sites for political conflict
not fighting over territory or dynasty
fighting over the meaning of membership in society
shifting balance between settler populations in neo-Europes and the incumbent populations
stand-off between the newcomers and incumbents
loose, not always peaceful, coexistence
with the arrival of total war to these outlying areas, we see the beginnings of exterminist campaigns
led new arrivals to remove or exterminate incumbent populations
fueled by the land rush
Jeffrey Amherst (1717–1797)
famous during Seven Years War
seized Quebec
in back-lands of English colonies, he was a notorious Indian hater
the effort to exterminate Indians from territories to open up lands for European settlement, presages dynamics that we see take place later in other corners of the world to exclude people, destroy people, remove people from the lands that they lived in
once you propose the fundamental idea that the government should be made by the people for the people, what ensues is a conflict over who the people are
along with the revolution of rights, we get a revolution in the practice of political violence
these are related to each other: violence and membership
rights revolution
changes from the late 18th century altered the concept of the political subject
spread around the world
the by-product of global conflict and global phenomenon
French Revolution
certain people enjoyed these rights
defined now as citizens
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
age of revolution ushers in a new concept of the political subject endowed with rights to protect themselves
how do you choose who enjoys these rights
invent another category called the nation whose co-members get to enjoy these rights
the United States and French revolutions were fought in the name of a people united as a nation
this fundamentally altered the concept of sovereignty
used to reside in the ruler
from Ming to Qing to Louis XIV
now the rights to rule where not divinely inscribed
it was the people who were themselves were the repository of sovereignty
for Thomas Jefferson, these rights are self evident inscribed in the rights of man
the freedom from capricious state power
right of the state to torture
out of this debate, we derive our idea of universal human rights
Bartolomé de las Casas
argued for the right of Indians to be protected from the Conquistadors as God's creatures
these norms governing creaturehood began to be addressed and questioned
invention of the novel
Rouseau: "Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse"
Samuel Richardson: "Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady"
first novel in history, in the modern sense
create a sense of empathy with the characters
heroic stories, on the other hand, were not about the identification with the character, but even deification
focusing on passion, love, virtue
emotional
an effort to regard each other as autonomous, feeling beings
the essential integrity of individuals and their bodies
led to campaigns to rid the world of torture and public spectacles of pain
e.g. expressed in Goya's painting
inflicting pain through torture, shown to be a barbaric act
Adam Smith "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"
published in 1759
first chapter uses examples of torture
asks: what if we knew that the victim of the torture was our brother?
act of imagination and empathy
identification is our source of sympathy for other people
our individuality is defined by our capacity to identify with the pain of others
across Europe their ensued a widespread campaign to abolish judicial torture
1783 Britain
1789 France
the state using the body of a political subject as a tool for influence was abolished
bodies were now seen as self-contained
this trend even had effects on architecture for common people
special rooms to keep the body private
the separation of beds
there was a new sensibility to the human body as something sacred which had rights
novels about personalities and empathy for others became popular
and this new talk of rights contained within each human began to change the course of human events