HIST 273 - The Century of Camps

A little more than a hundred years ago, a new kind of structure appeared: the detention camp for civilians. Originally termed a ‘concentration camp’ (because it ‘concentrated’ the inhabitants of an area into a small confined space) and intended to be a shortterm expedient, the camp quickly became an archetype of the modern age, a tool relied upon by democratic no less than dictatorial states-and even by humanitarian organizations seeking to deliver aid. This course will examine, from a comparative perspective, the role, structure and meaning of the camp in its extraordinary variety of forms during the past century; its creation of a ‘parallel universe’ within which new dystopian kinds of social organization become possible; and the human experience of those whose lives it has impacted, distorted or terminated.

Credits: 1.00
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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