Established in 1919, the League of Nations Library was designed as a modern specialized collection comprising 90,000 volumes on international relations. After World War II, the League Library and its extensive collection became part of the newly founded United Nations Library at Geneva.
The online UN Library Geneva catalogue, Global Search, allows to search within the League Library collection. However, the old card catalogue in the Library should also be consulted for an in-depth subject search.
Several databases at the UN Library Geneva offer full-text access or limited views of publications pertinent to the League of Nations archives, making them particularly valuable for related research.
Click here for a complete list with online resources available at the UN Library Geneva.
100 years of multilateralism in Geneva : from the LoN to the UN by 
East Asians in the League of Nations: actors, empires and regions in early global politics by
This book looks at East Asian actors in the League of Nations to explore a pivotal moment in the early stage of the development of global international relations. It breaks new ground by drawing on extensive sources in East Asian languages to show how actors from the region played significant roles in shaping the emerging norms and practices that underpin the international system. The chapters cover cases from the three East Asian member states, namely China, Japan and Siam (Thailand) to address topics that involve the intersection of disciplinary fields, such as law and warfare, sovereignty and international organization, and public health and international co-operation. The research draws on new material that will be of interest to academic researchers and is presented in a style suitable for teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, especially for courses that strive to achieve a global outlook and the decolonization of the curriculum.
The Emotions of Internationalism: feeling international cooperation in the Alps in the interwar period by
The Emotions of Internationalism follows a number of international people and institutions active in the Alps in the 1920s and 1930s, exploring how they understood emotions and how they tried to employ them to achieve their political and non-political goals. Through the analysis of a broad spectrum of unpublished archival materials in four languages (English, French, Italian, and German), this study takes readers on an evocative, historical journey through the Alps. A wide range of characters populate its pages, from Heidi and the protagonists of novels and films set on the mountains, to Woodrow Wilson and other high-level political figures active both inside and outside of the League of Nations, to the alpinists and climbers engaged in hikes and international congresses, to the many children involved in camping trips, to the countless patients of the sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis which for decades used to dot alpine villages and to excite the popular imagination. At the centre of the volume are people's emotions-real and imagined-from the resentment left after the First World War to the 'friendship' evoked in speeches and concretely implemented in a number of alpine settings for a variety of purposes, to the 'joy' that contemporaries saw as the key to navigating the complexities of 'modernity' and to avoiding another war. The result is a compelling overview of the institutions and people involved in international cooperation in the 1920s and 1930s, understood through the lens of the history of emotions.
Eric Drummond and His Legacies by
This book shows how the first institution of global governance was conceived and operated. It provides a new assessment of its architect, Eric Drummond, the first Secretary-General of the League of Nations, appointed a century ago. The authors conclude that he stands in the front rank of the 12 men who have occupied the post of Secretary-General of the League or its successor, the UN. Part 1 describes his character and leadership. His influence in shaping the International Civil Service, the 'beating heart' of the League, is the subject of Part 2, which also shows how the young staff he appointed responded with imagination and creativity to the political, economic and social problems that followed World War I. Part 3 shows the influence of these early origins on today's global organizations and the large scale absorption of League policies, programmes, practices and staff into the UN and its Specialized Agencies.
The League of Nations by
The League of Nations - Perspectives from the Present is an accessible and richly illustrated edited volume displaying a wide variety of cutting-edge research on the many ways the League of Nations shaped its times and continues to shape our contemporary world. A series of bite-size studies, divided into three thematic parts, investigates how the League affected the world around it and the lives of the people became part of this 'first great experiment' in international organisation. Recent research has reinterpreted the League as a laboratory of global economic, political and humanitarian governance. Expanding on this, the volume aims to show that the League is an 'academic site', where international history - as a discipline - has re-invented itself by integrating new approaches from social, cultural and media history. With an introduction by Director-General Michael Møller of the United Nations Organisation in Geneva, this work is a timely reminder of the fragile, varied and enduring history of multilateralism, on the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
The League of Nations by
The League of Nations occupies a fascinating yet paradoxical place in human history. Over time, it's come to symbolize both a path to peace and to war, a promising vision of world order and a utopian illusion, an artifact of a bygone era and a beacon for one that may still come. As the first experiment in world organization, the League played a pivotal, but often overlooked role in the creation of the United Nations and the modern architecture of global governance. In contrast to conventional accounts, which chronicle the institution's successes and failures during the interwar period, Cottrell explores the enduring relevance of the League of Nations for the present and future of global politics. He asks: What are the legacies of the League experiment? How do they inform current debates on the health of global order and US leadership? Is there a "dark side" to these legacies? Cottrell demonstrates how the League of Nations' soul continues to shape modern international relations, for better and for worse. Written in a manner accessible to students of international history, international relations and global politics, it will also be of interest to graduates and scholars.
A Violent Peace: media, truth, and power at the League of Nations by
The newly born League of Nations confronted the post-WWI world--from growing stateless populations to the resurgence of right-wing movements--by aiming to create a transnational, cosmopolitan dialogue on justice. As part of these efforts, a veritable army of League personnel set out to shape "global public opinion," in favor of the postwar liberal international order. Combining the tools of global intellectual history and cultural history, A Violent Peace reopens the archives of the League to reveal surprising links between the political use of modern information systems and the rise of mass violence in the interwar world. Historian Carolyn N. Biltoft shows how conflicts over truth and power that played out at the League of Nations offer broad insights into the nature of totalitarian regimes and their use of media flows to demonize a whole range of "others." An exploration of instability in information systems, the allure of fascism, and the contradictions at the heart of a global modernity, A Violent Peace paints a rich portrait of the emergence of the age of information--and all its attendant problems.