Author: MOOREHEAD, CAROLINE
Title: Dunant's dream : war, Switzerland and the history of the Red Cross
Description: London : HarperCollinsPublishers 1998. 1st Edition. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight. bright. clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical description: xxxi. 780 pages. 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations. portraits ; 24 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 723-743) and index. Includes previous owner's inscriptions. Summary: The International Red Cross was the inspiration - the dream - of Henri Dunant. a 31-year-old businessman appalled by the butchery and lack of medical care for injured soldiers during the battle of Solferino in 1859. With Gustave Moynier. another Swiss. Dunant set out to create an international organization which was not only to alter irrevocably. the fate of all those wounded in every war. but which moved rapidly into international humanitarian law. refugee work. prison conditions and the tracking of people parted by warfare. The original Geneva Convention of 1864. for which the Red Cross was directly responsible. is one of the most important international instruments of humanitarian law ever formulated. Today the Red Cross has 137 national societies and 250 million members. Yet it remains an inscrutable institution - very much the same animal today as in the 1870s - governed by the Swiss alone. but highly dependent for its diplomats and staff on foreigners - all of whom are required to sign a pledge of secrecy. This text traces the origins of the Red Cross. its main areas of work including some of its most difficult and contentious interventions. and its work with refugees. It investigates the secretive paranoia of the headquarters and uncovers some truths about the Red Cross and its relationship with some of the most horrific and barbaric political regimes of the 20th century. It also examines the concept of neutrality - central to the Red Cross - and its feasibility in the modern world. Review: 'The Red Cross was the inspiration - the dream - of Henri Dunant. a thirty-old-year-old Swiss businessman appalled by the butchery and lack of medical care for injured soldiers he came across. almost by chance. during the battle of Solferino in 1859. With Gustave Moynier. another Swiss. Dunant set out to create an international organization which would not only alter the fate of all those wounded in war. but which moved rapidly to establish international humanitarian law. begin refugee work. improve prison conditions and track down those parted by warfare.' 'Caroline Moorehead is the first writer to be granted unparalleled access to the Red Cross archives in Geneva which have been closed for over a hundred years. Her book traces the origins of the Red Cross. its work during the wars of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. its response to natural disasters. including its most contentious and political interventions. and describes the men and women delegates who became the historians and monitors of war. She investigates the long-lasting secrecy and paranoia of the organization and the true history of the relationship between the International Committee and some of the most murderous political regimes of the twentieth century. She also examines the concept of neutrality - central to the Red Cross - and its practicality in the modern world.'--Jacket. Subject: Dunant. Henry 1828-1910. International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz — Biography. War. Neutrality. Voluntary Health Agencies — History. Red Cross and Red Crescent — Switzerland — Relief of sick and wounded. International armed conflict. Genre: Bibliography. Illustrated text. ISBN: 0002551411. Weight in Kg appr.:

Keywords: 0002551411