Night on Earth (Human Rights in History)

Night on Earth is a broad-ranging account of international humanitarian programs in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Near East from 1918 to 1930. Davide Rodogno shows that international 'relief' and 'development' were intertwined long before the birth of the United Nations with humanitarians operating in a region devastated by war and famine and in which state sovereignty was deficient. Influenced by colonial motivations and ideologies these humanitarians attempted to reshape entire communities and nations through reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes. The book draws on the activities of a wide range of secular and religious organisations and philanthropic foundations in the US and Europe including the American Relief Administration, the American Red Cross, the Quakers, Save the Children, the Near East Relief, the American Women's Hospitals, the League of Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Davide Rodogno is Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. His previous publications include Fascism's European Empire (2006), Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815–1914 (2011). He co-edited and authored Humanitarian Photography (2015) and Transnational Networks of Experts in the Long Nineteenth century (2016).