A major new study of the political and intellectual origins of modern humanitarianism from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Introduction; Part I. Idealism beyond Borders: 1. A revolution in aid: the creation of sans-frontiérisme; 2. Aiding the revolution: influences on tiers-mondisme; Part II. Violence and Morality: 3. The struggle for international justice: tiers-mondiste engagement on the outskirts of May; 4. Complicity, conscience and autocritique: reconfiguring attitudes to political violence; 5. A rhetoric of responsibility: Vichy, the Holocaust, and suffering in the third world; Part III. Ethics and Polemics: 6. Idealism beyond borders: the turn to sans-frontiériste spectacle; 7. Controversy in a humanitarian age: attacks on tiers-mondisme in the 1980s; Conclusion; Notes; Index.

Eleanor Davey's research is currently funded by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014-17) and explores the relationship between humanitarianism and national liberation. Prior to joining the University of Manchester, she worked in the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute (HPG/ODI), one of the leading research centres working on humanitarian action, where she headed a project on the uses of history in humanitarian practice and policy. She is currently an adviser to research projects underway at ODI and Save the Children UK.