With the changing of the guest blogger guard (we recently welcomed
David Rabban), it is time to bid a fond farewell to
Benjamin Coates (Wake Forest University). In addition to bringing history to bear on the recent political controversy over drone strikes (
here), he posted some wonderful material on how he has incorporated law into his survey course on U.S. Foreign Relations. Here's a snippet from
Law and the U.S. Foreign Relations Survey, Part I: Expanding the Sphere, Filling the Gaps:
This
past Fall I taught the first half of the United States & the World survey
(1763-1914) for the first time. More so than most classes, the subject matter
for this course tows a cartload of nationalist historical baggage. . . . [T]he
challenge comes from the more deeply embedded assumption that the history of
the United States is the history of a nation-state, and a powerful and
exceptional nation-state at that. I knew that it would be a challenge to
convince students that in global terms the early United States was a weak
nation, a provincial backwater. And even students who are highly aware of the
violent dispossession of Native Americans still have a hard time understanding
that process not as national growth (“westward expansion”) but as empire (the
conquest and rule of foreign peoples and nations).
In
teaching these topics, I found law—both domestic and international—to be an invaluable
companion.
For easy access to the rest of the series, follow the links:
Law and the U.S. Foreign Relations Survey, Part II: Teaching the Founding as Foreign Relations
Law and the U.S. Foreign Relations Survey, Part III: Empire and the Laws of Expansion
Law and the U.S. Foreign Relations Survey, Part IV: Law, Civilization, and Empire
From LHB and all its readers:
Thank you, Benjamin Coates!
