John Fox and Marit Fosse, have written a book entitled The League of Nations : from Collective Security to Global Rearmament. They take us back to those promising days of the twentieth century when the predecessor of the United Nations was set up following the carnage of the First World War. Despite the most illustrious hopes that the League would guarantee peace throughout the world, it failed gloriously and did not survive the Second World War. Nevertheless, for the first time in the history of the human race, the League laid the foundations for international collaboration in the fields of justice, trade, labour, health, culture, transport, refugees, science, etc. It also set in motion the processes of decolonization. However, it was the Wall Street collapse of 1929 that encouraged dictatorships to prosper in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Japan. The political and military turmoil of the 1930s rendered the League powerless.
There are two unique features about this book. First of all, it is full of authentic illustrations, both from contemporary newspapers and also from official documents drawn directly from the Archives of the League of Nations. Second, it is written in an easily accessible language. The aim, according to the authors, is to make the general public aware of the dramatic events in the period between the two world wars when the League of Nations was active. The authors’ main concern is that the errors of the past shall not be repeated. Let us hope that we can weather the present economic turmoil without falling into the pitfalls of nationalism and xenophobia that destroyed the League of Nations.
UN Publications ISBN 978-92-1-101248-4
