This book provides fresh perspectives on a key period in the history of humanitarianism. Drawing on economic, cultural, social and diplomatic perspectives, it explores the scale and meaning of humanitarianism in the era of the Great War. Foregrounding the local and global dimensions of the humanitarian responses, it interrogates the entanglement of humanitarian and political interests and uncovers the motivations and agency of aid donors, relief workers and recipients. The chapters probe the limits of humanitarian engagement in a period of unprecedented violence and suffering and evaluate its long-term impact on humanitarian action.
This book offers fresh perspectives on the history of humanitarianism and its impact on domestic and international politics in the era of the Great War.
Introduction: humanitarianism and the Greater War Elisabeth Piller and
Neville Wylie
PART I: GLOBAL WAR, GLOBAL AID
1 Humanitarian aid across the ocean: Argentine contributions to the relief of
Europe during the Great War Marķa Inés Tato
2 Sagas of swords, scrolls, and dolls: Japanese humanitarian aid to Belgium
Hanne Deleu
3 Geographies of humanitarian mobilisation: Portuguese Africa and the Great
War Ana Paula Pires
4 Philanthropy in time of war: Paul Nathan and the Hilfsverein der deutschen
Juden Christoph Jahr
PART II: THE POLITICS AND POWER OF AID
5 The neutrals at war: humanitarian competition in the Great War Cédric
Cotter
6 Neutrality and the politics of protection: the United States as a
protecting power, 191417 Neville Wylie
7 Blockaders as humanitarians? Connecting the Allied blockade of Germany and
post-war
Humanitarianism Phillip Dehne
8 Better fed than red: international famine relief, 192122 Kimberly Lowe
PART III: THE LEGACIES AND LIMITS OF GREAT WAR-ERA RELIEF
9 Abandoning Poland: Great War humanitarianism as a history of failure
Elisabeth Piller
10 Children and the hunger politics of 1919-20: food aid to German children
and the
founding of the international Save the Children Movement Tatjana Eichert
and Rebecca Gill
11 The most deplorable victims? The language of humanitarianism and relief
to intellectuals in the era of the Great War Tomįs Irish
12 The imperial guardians of slavery: international humanitarianism,
colonial labour policies, and the crisis of imperial governance under the
League of Nations, 191926 Christian Mueller
Afterword Branden Little
Index -- .
Elisabeth Piller is an Assistant Professor of Transatlantic and North American History at the University of Freiburg
Neville Wylie is a Professor of International History and Deputy Principal at the University of Stirling -- .
