Voluntary organizations, the Red Cross and the features of humanitarian reconstruction in Western Europe after the World Wars

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on twentieth-century voluntary organizations and their contribution to the reconstruction of states, communities and humanitarian assistance to civilian populations following conflicts, epidemics and disasters has tended to focus on non-Western European countries. Scholarly works from the history discipline over the past decades indicate that it is mostly in Africa, the Middle East, the West Indies, Eastern Europe and Asia where natural or man-made disasters have occurred, and it is these places that have been the focus of humanitarian assistance. Although the literature acknowledges that Western Europe was at times the beneficiary of such assistance, the broad history of humanitarian reconstruction and assistance generally considers Western Europe as a key provider rather than a recipient of humanitarian assistance. This two-part Special Issue proposes to do the opposite, to add complexity and nuance to the historiography of humanitarian aid and reconstruction assistance in Western Europe. It explores the ways in which voluntary organizations have contributed to the reconstruction and the care of populations in Western European countries including but not limited to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom after both the First and Second World War. It seeks to investigate how the Red Cross movement – individual National Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies – alongside other voluntary organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and a range of other international and local non-government bodies, have contributed to reconstruction in Western Europe at both national and local levels following times of crisis.