S0711 South Africa and America: Apartheid and Segregation

This course will examine the origins and ideological rationales for the imposition of apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the American South.

It will focus on the multiple factors involved in developing each system, with particular attention to the following questions: what were the pivotal reasons why those in political and economic power in each country decided to impose segregation and apartheid; how did the two systems differ; what was the relationship between the political economy in each country and the rationales for adopting apartheid and segregation; how did the laws in each country that created the new systems compare; what was the relationship between law and ideology; how did the victims in each society respond; what political and social forms did resistance take; how many members of the dominant social group in each society protested the systems of segregation and apartheid; and how did blacks in South Africa and in America finally overcome their oppressors?