The Red Cross’s Public Health Turn

“In the wake of war and humanitarian catastrophe, the 1919 Cannes Medical Conference marked an important, though often misunderstood moment in the shift to address public health within civil society at a global level. Romain Fathi’s meticulously researched book is essential for anyone interested in the conceptual and practical legacies of the Great War.” — Bruno Cabanes, Donald and Mary Dunn Chair, The Ohio State University, USA. “Fathi paints an illuminating portrait of the Cannes Medical Conference, tracing the origins and outcomes of this landmark event, the personalities involved, and the complex politics associated with it. In so doing, his book recovers a foundational moment in the histories of modern humanitarianism and global health.” — Julia F. Irwin, T. Harry Williams Professor of History, Louisiana State University, USA. “This eloquent and meticulously researched book uncovers how, from the ashes of the First World War, the 1919 Cannes Medical Conference catalyzed a shift from wartime relief to peacetime public health — paving the way for a new era in the Red Cross Red Crescent movement and international humanitarianism.” — Prof. Dr. Nel de Mûelenaere, Associate Professor in Contemporary History, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ixelles, Belgium. ""Multiple audiences can benefit from this work. Humanitarian scholars can use Fathi’s framework to consider whether LRCS national, transnational, intentional and extemporised acts honoured Cannes’s aims. Researchers of Italy’s, Japan’s and the UK’s prophylactic health practices can use it to see whether those polities divergently viewed Cannes and the LRCS.""— First World War Studies