Sakiko Kaiga. Britain and the Intellectual Origins of the League of Nations, 1914–1919.

Abstract

The League of Nations has been the subject of an extensive reappraisal in recent years. Rather than seeing it as an organization that failed in its primary mission to prevent the outbreak of another world war, scholars have explored the work undertaken by the League in a vast range of areas, such as public health, economics, humanitarianism, and education, among many others. New works increasingly see continuities linking the activities undertaken by the League in the 1920s and 1930s and the initiatives pursued by the United Nations following the Second World War. Sakiko Kaiga’s new book, Britain and the Intellectual Origins of the League of Nations, 1914–1919, continues this revision of the history of the League of Nations by looking backward rather than forward, exploring the intellectual origins of the organization in Britain during the First World War. Based on extensive archival research, Kaiga’s book argues persuasively that “the League idea originated intellectually from the little-appreciated pro-league movement in Britain and the unexpected development and consequences of its idea during the Great War” (2).