Saving the Children explores the intersection of liberal internationalism and imperialism through the history of the humanitarian organization Save the Children, from its formation during the First World War through the era of decolonization. Whereas Save the Children claimed that it was "saving children to save the world," the vision of the world it sought to save was a strictly delimited one, characterized by international capitalism and colonial rule. Emily Baughan's groundbreaking analysis, across fifty years and eighteen countries, shows that Britain’s desire to create an international order favorable to its imperial rule shaped international humanitarianism. In revealing that modern humanitarianism and its conception of childhood are products of the early twentieth-century imperial economy, Saving the Children argues that the contemporary aid sector must reckon with its past if it is to forge a new future.
Saving the Children Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire
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Reviews
"This is an important study on the end game of imperialism and humanitarianism. Using engaging stories and quick moving narrative, Emily Baughan makes a case for understand imperialism and humanitarianism in the twentieth century through the lens of an institutional history of Save the Children"—Michelle Tusan, author of The British Empire and the Armenian Genocide: Humanitarianism and Imperial Politics from Gladstone to Churchill"Based on years of meticulous research and thoughtful analysis, this book resists easy conclusions and oversimplifications, always parsing carefully the complex dynamics of aid and development and balancing effectively the stories of institutions and individuals. A terrific addition to the Berkeley Series in British Studies!"—Jordanna Bailkin, author of The Afterlife of Empire