Introduction: human disasters: humanitarian rights and the transnational turn in the wake of the First World War; 1. 'Rights, not charity': René Cassin and war victims; 2. Justice and peace: Albert Thomas, the ILO and the dream of a transnational politics of social rights; 3. The tragedy of being stateless: Fridtjof Nansen and the rights of refugees; 4. The hungry and the sick: Herbert Hoover, the Russian famine, and the professionalization of humanitarian aid; 5. Humanitarianism old and new: Eglantyne Jebb and children's rights; Conclusion: human dignity: from humanitarian rights to human rights; Bibliographical essay; Bibliography.
Pioneering study of the transition from war to peace and the birth of humanitarian rights after the Great War.
Bruno Cabanes is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Yale University. His research focuses on the period of transition that followed World War I and, in particular, the demobilization of combat troops, the traumatic impact of war on soldiers and civilians, and, more recently, the environmental history of war and its aftermath. His publications include La victoire endeuillée: La sortie de guerre des soldats français (1918–1920) (2004), which was awarded the Gustave Chaix d'Est Ange Prize, 2004, by the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Paris and shortlisted for the Augustin-Thierry Prize for the Best Book of the Year in 2004. A member of the Comités Scientifiques (Advisory Boards) of the Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne and the Museum of the Great War, Verdun, France, he also serves on the editorial board of Vingtième siècle. Revue d'histoire.
'We are accustomed to thinking about international law as the
creature of realist geopolitics. Cabanes shows how international
and transnational humanitarian activism helped build international
law 'from below', in response to basic human needs. His book
constitutes an important investigation of the long-run impact of
the idealism rising out of the ashes of the Great War.' Leonard V.
Smith, Oberlin College, Ohio
'Bruno Cabanes is well known in France as the inventor of a
methodology for the study of the aftermath of war … The Great War
and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924 is a brilliant
demonstration of the power of his method. It offers a terrifying
panorama of the suffering of children, refugees, the starving and
the homeless, from England to the Ukraine, whose fate was sealed
paradoxically in 1919, by peacetime. But despair is only the
beginning of the story. Cabanes focuses on five extraordinary men
and women who were moved by these tragedies to fight for the right
to human dignity, creating international organizations that are the
true ancestors of today's NGOs … Readers of this compelling
transnational history will come away with a whole new understanding
of the ravages of the First World War, and with a very new picture
of the 1920s.' Alice Kaplan, Yale University, Connecticut
'Between exceptional individuals and collective catastrophe, Bruno
Cabanes teaches us with masterful authority how a new humanitarian
front was born from total war.' Annette Becker, Paris West
University Nanterre and Institut Universitaire de France
'Cabanes persuasively argues that the First World War was a key
moment in the history of humanitarianism. By focusing his story on
five extraordinary individuals, he has produced a history which is
both comprehensive and highly readable. Stunning in its
geographical and thematic breadth, The Great War and the Origins of
Humanitarianism, 1918–1924 is nevertheless never pretentious or
showy. The emphasis here is firmly - and movingly - on the power of
human dignity. An unflagging desire for human justice is at the
core of this story, but also, failure, conflict and exhaustion.
This inventive, richly textured book will change the way we think
about the history of human rights.' Mary Louise Roberts, University
of Wisconsin, Madison
'The sheer scale of the refugee story, of statelessness, of what
Cabanes calls the 'collective loss of nationality', of famine and
mass suffering and death, makes for riveting and disturbing
reading, but also the kind of scholarship that one steps back from
in admiration. Wars do not necessarily end when guns are muzzled or
with treaties signed in ornate rooms. This is the great subject of
Cabanes' work. And we in other fields can learn so much from it.'
David Blight, Yale University, Connecticut
'Amid the multitude of new books on WWI, Cabanes offers an
original, substantive study by bringing together the cultural
histories of the conflict and of human rights, drawing on a wide
range of primary and secondary sources, many in French. He argues
that the war and the troubled transition to peace in the years
1918–24 created an environment in which individuals and the
transnational organizations they led provided much material aid and
justice to millions of war victims not only because of humanitarian
concerns but also because of their rights as human beings. Summing
up: highly recommended.' A. H. Plunkett, Choice
'Humanitarians in the 1920s had not yet developed the bureaucracy
or resources that they would acquire after World War II. But the
fact that these humanitarian efforts did not, in the end, secure a
lasting peace is no reason to diminish their aspirations, their
vision, or their extensive work. Cabanes has done them justice in
excavating their unique role in the history of humanitarianism, and
he has presented scholars of humanitarianism with a compelling
model for future work.' Rachel Chrastil, The Journal of Modern
History
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