Belgium was a major hub for transnational movements. By taking this small and yet significant European country as a focal point, the book critically examines major issues in modern history, including nationalism, colonial expansion, debates on the nature of international relations and campaigns for political and social equality. Now available in paperback, this study explores an age in which many groups and communities – from socialists to scientists – organised themselves across national borders. The timeframe covers the rise of international movements and associations before the First World War, the conflagration of 1914 and the emergence of new actors such as the League of Nations. The book acknowledges the changing framework for transnational activism, including its interplay with domestic politics and international institutions. By tracing international movements and ideas, the book aims to reveal and explain the multifarious and sometimes contradictory nature of internationalism.

Belgium was a major hub for transnational movements. By taking this small and yet significant European country as a focal point, the book critically examines major issues in modern history, including nationalism, colonial expansion, debates on the nature of international relations and campaigns for political and social equality. Now available in paperback, this study explores an age in which many groups and communities - from socialists to scientists - organised themselves across national borders. The timeframe covers the rise of international movements and associations before the First World War, the conflagration of 1914 and the emergence of new actors such as the League of Nations. The book acknowledges the changing framework for transnational activism, including its interplay with domestic politics and international institutions. By tracing international movements and ideas, the book aims to reveal and explain the multifarious and sometimes contradictory nature of internationalism.

Traces the formation and development of multilateral trade structures in the aftermath of the First World War.

Representing a crucial intervention in the history of internationalism, transnationalism and global history, this edited collection examines a variety of international movements, organisations and projects developed in Europe or by Europeans over the course of the 20th century. Reacting against the old Eurocentricism, much of the scholarship in the field has refocussed attention on other parts of the globe. This volume attempts to rethink the role played by ideas, people and organisations originating or located in Europe, including some of their consequential global impact. The chapters cover aspects of internationalism such as the importance of language, communication and infrastructures of internationalism; ways of grappling with the history of internationalism as a lived experience; and the roles of European actors in the formulation of different and often competing models of internationalism. It demonstrates that the success and failure of international programmes were dependent on participants' ability to communicate across linguistic but also political, cultural and economic borders. By bringing together commonly disconnected strands of European history and 'history from below', this volume rebalances and significantly advances the field, and promotes a deeper understanding of internationalism in its many historical guises. The volume is conceived as a way of thinking about internationalism that is relevant not just to scholars of Europe, but to international and global history more generally.

This volume examines transnational educational transfer between China and the League of Nations during the interwar period. By analysing the educational activities of the League of Nations with China, he book enriches the study of the history of the League of Nations by turning the focus to affairs that exceed the scope of traditional international relation and focusing on ways in which international organizations engaged in international educational endeavors. Adopting a transnational perspective, the book moves beyond conventional national-centered historiography, thus contributing to the understanding of how educational ideas, media, and policies circulate between different nations.

The Interwar World collects an international group of over 50 contributors to discuss, analyze, and interpret this crucial period in twentieth-century history. A comprehensive understanding of the interwar era has been limited by Euro-American approaches and strict adherence to the temporal limits of the world wars. The volume’s contributors challenge the era’s accepted temporal and geographic framings by privileging global processes and interactions. Each contribution takes a global, thematic approach, integrating world regions into a shared narrative. Three central questions frame the chapters. First, when was the interwar? Viewed globally, the years 1918 and 1939 are arbitrary limits, and the volume explicitly engages with the artificiality of the temporal framework while closely examining the specific dynamics of the 1920s and 1930s. Second, where was the interwar? Contributors use global history methodologies and training in varied world regions to decenter Euro-American frameworks, engaging directly with the usefulness of the interwar as both an era and an analytical category. Third, how global was the interwar? Authors trace accelerating connections in areas such as public health and mass culture counterbalanced by processes of economic protectionism, exclusive nationalism, and limits to migration. By approaching the era thematically, the volume disaggregates and interrogates the meaning of the ‘global’ in this era. As a comprehensive guide, this volume offers overviews of key themes of the interwar period for undergraduates, while offering up-to-date historiographical insights for postgraduates and scholars interested in this pivotal period in global history.

The book examines the history of co-operation in the broad context of the history of consumerism and consumption; of internationalism and the development of international organisations; and debates about international trade during the inter-war period. The fundamental question explored in the book concerns the meaning of co-operation. Was it a social movement or an economic enterprise? Did it aspire to challenge capitalism or to reform it? Did it contain at its heart a political vision for the transformation of society or was it simply a practical guide for organising a business? Hilson argues that it was both, but that an examination of the debates over the different meanings of co-operation can also illuminate broader questions about the emergence of consumer interests in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in a transnational context.