History and Humanitarianism: A Conversation

Abstract

There has been an undeniable interest in recent years in the history of humanitarianism. It is a field that has grown quickly and, as a field of inquiry, it incorporates a vast spectrum of subjects: from the history of anti-slavery movements in the eighteenth century, emergency relief in times of famine in the nineteenth, responses to refugee crises in the twentieth, through to longer-term development and poverty eradication programmes during and after empire. It embraces both private philanthropy and public assistance, from individual states and intergovernmental agencies, and intersects with so many other broad themes, from histories of race and gender, human rights, conflict and security, and even the overall development of capitalist modernity. Each of these subjects in turn have their own historiographies, and all draw too on a vast and well-established literature from across the social sciences and humanities.