Voluntary Organisations, the Red Cross, and the Features of Humanitarian Reconstruction in Western Europe after the World Wars.

This book explores the ways in which non-government organisations have contributed to the reconstruction of, and care for populations in, Western European countries including but not limited to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom in the aftermath of the World Wars.

Historical research on voluntary or non-government organisations and their contribution to the reconstruction of states, communities and humanitarian assistance to civilian populations following conflicts, epidemics and disasters through the twentieth century has generally focused on non-Western European countries, except for Second World War II. The historiography suggests that it is mostly in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa that natural or man-made disasters have occurred and that these places have been the focus for humanitarian assistance. Rather, the humanitarian enterprise is viewed through the binary of the Global North/Global South, those who save and those who are saved. The chapters in this volume investigate how the Red Cross movement – the League of Red Cross Societies, the International Committee of Red Cross and individual national societies – and other voluntary organisations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and a range of other international and local non-government bodies have contributed to reconstruction in these countries at both national and local levels following times of crises such as wars, civilian upheavals and disasters.