Interwar Internationalisms, 1918-1939

Catalog description

Drawing on new scholarship and writings from the period itself, this course explores the considerable political, institutional, social, economic, and intellectual innovation that took place between 1918 and 1939. We will focus on the different forms of international collaboration and exchange that characterized this period, from the League of Nations to economic technocrats, from public health specialists to abolitionists, from religious thinkers to fascists, and from anti-colonial activists to humanitarian innovators; the interwar years saw the growth of the international civil society we take for granted today. At the same time, we will examine internationalism critically and ask why it could ultimately not root deeply enough in national contexts to prevent another world war. As the birthplace of many tendencies and practices that in fact survived into the second half of the century, interwar internationalism was both promising and perilously perched in an era of instability and transition.