Reversing the Rivers: A Memoir of History, Hope, and Human Rights (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)

Schulz, William F.

ISBN 10: 1512824038 / ISBN 13: 9781512824032

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reversing the Rivers: A Memoir of History, Hope, and Human Rights (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1512824038
• ISBN 13: 9781512824032
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

From 1994 to 2006, William F. Schulz headed Amnesty International USA. During this time, he and the organization confronted some of the greatest challenges to human rights, including genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan; controversies over the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the use of torture by the United States after 9/11; as well as growing concern about inequities in the American justice system, from police misconduct to the death penalty. Drawing upon his encounters with tyrants, the inspiration of brave human rights heroes, and collaborations with celebrities ranging from Patrick Stewart to Salma Hayek, Schulz uses poignant narrative and amusing anecdotes to discuss the day-to-day realities of struggling with life-and-death human rights crises. In the process he ducks an assassination threat in Liberia; brings tears to the eyes of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland; and bests America’s self-described “toughest sheriff” on Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect.

Full of reflection as well as action, Reversing the Rivers provides Schulz with the opportunity to address profound philosophical questions, such as “What is the nature of evil?”; “How do we foster the ‘better angels of our nature’?” “When may we use force to stop people from using force?” “Is the prohibition on torture as simple as it seems?” and “What’s wrong with an eye for an eye?” Most important, in an eloquent concluding chapter, he answers the quandary most frequently posed to him during his years at Amnesty, “Given all the horrors in the world you see day after day, how do you retain any hope at all in humanity?”

About the Author

William F. Schulz, an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, served as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA from 1994-2006 after having been President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. He subsequently became a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, taught at New York University and Meadville Lombard Theological School, and was President of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Currently, Dr. Schulz is a Senior Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the recipient of eight honorary degrees and the author or editor of seven books on human rights. He and his wife live overlooking the ocean on the north shore of Massachusetts.