Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations: Shaping Cultural and Political Relations (United Nations Historical Series)

Edited by Martin Grandjean and Daniel Laqua, this book brings together the work of 17 scholars and highlights the breadth of the League of Nations’ work in the field of intellectual cooperation, detailing a range of transnational connections across a variety of cultural fields.Building a new global order after the First World War required not only political and economic reconstruction, but also the coordination of scientific and cultural relations on an international scale.To this end, the League of Nations established first a committee and then a Paris-based institute dedicated to “intellectual cooperation”.Operative from 1922 and 1926 respectively, these bodies aimed to develop a collaborative dynamic around issues as diverse as professor and student exchanges, scientific cooperation, the discussion of educational means for peace, as well as artistic and literary relations.Attracting some of the era’s most eminent intellectuals, this initiative did not lead to the creation of a “Leag