Table Of ContentPlacing Internationalism
Histories of Internationalism
Series Editors:
Jessica Reinisch, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
David Brydan, King’s College London, UK
Editorial Board:
Tomoko Akami, Australian National University, Australia
Martin Conway, University of Oxford, UK
Adom Getachew, University of Chicago, USA
Sandrine Kott, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Stephen Legg, University of Nottingham, UK
Su Lin Lewis, University of Bristol, UK
Erez Manela, Harvard University, USA
Samuel Moyn, Yale University, USA
Alanna O’Malley, Leiden University, Netherlands
Kiran Patel, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
Tehila Sasson, Emory University, USA
Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Heidi Tworek, University of British Columbia, Canada
This new book series features cutting-edge research on the history of international cooperation and
internationalising ambitions in the modern world. Providing an intellectual home for research into the
many guises of internationalism, its titles draw on methods and insights from political, social, cultural,
economic and intellectual history. It showcases a rapidly expanding scholarship which has begun to
transform our understanding of internationalism.
Cutting across established academic fields such as European, World, International and Global History,
the series will critically examine historical perceptions of geography, regions, centres, peripheries,
borderlands and connections across space in the history of internationalism. It will include both
monographs and edited volumes that shed new light on local and global contexts for international
projects; the impact of class, race and gender on international aspirations; the roles played by a
variety of international organisations and institutions; and the hopes, fears, tensions and conflicts
underlying them.
The series is published in association with Birkbeck’s Centre for the Study of Internationalism.
Published:
Internationalists in European History: Rethinking the Twentieth Century, Jessica Reinisch and David
Brydan (eds)
Organizing the 20th-Century World: International Organizations and the Emergence of International
Public Administration, 1920-1960s, Karen Gram-Skjoldager, Haakon Andreas Ikonomou, Torsten
Kahlert (eds)
International Cooperation in Cold War Europe: The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,
1947-64, Daniel Stinsky
Forthcoming:
Relief and Rehabilitation for a Postwar World: Humanitarian Intervention and the UNRRA?, Samantha
K. Knapton and Katherine Rossy (eds)
Inventing the Third World: In Search of Freedom for the Postwar Global South, Jeremy Adelman and
Gyan Prakash (eds)
Placing Internationalism
International Conferences and the
Making of the Modern World
Edited by
Stephen Legg, Mike Heffernan, Jake Hodder and
Benjamin J. Thorpe
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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First published in Great Britain 2022
Copyright ©Stephen Legg, Mike Heffernan, Jake Hodder and Benjamin J. Thorpe, 2022
Stephen Legg, Mike Heffernan, Jake Hodder and Benjamin J. Thorpe have asserted their rights under
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xi constitute an extension of this copyright page.
Cover design: Terry Woodley
Cover image © The Fifth Pan-African Congress, held at Chorlton-upon-Medlock
Town Hall in Manchester, 15th - 21st October 1945. Photo by John Deakin/Picture
Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Legg, Stephen, editor.
Title: Placing internationalism: international conferences and the making of the modern world /
Edited by Stephen Legg, Mike Heffernan, Jake Hodder and Benjamin Thorpe.
Description: London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. | Series: Histories of internationalism |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021025529 (print) | LCCN 2021025530 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350247185 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781350247192 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350247208 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Internationalism. | Congresses and conventions. | International organization. |
World politics.
Classification: LCC JZ1308 .P573 2021 (print) | LCC JZ1308 (ebook) | DDC 320.54/8–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021025529
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021025530
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3502-4718-5
ePDF: 978-1-3502-4719-2
eBook: 978-1-3502-4720-8
Series: Histories of Internationalism
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
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Contents
List of figures vii
List of contributors ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction Mike Heffernan, Jake Hodder, Stephen Legg and Benjamin J. Thorpe 1
1 Towards an historical geography of international conferencing Mike
Heffernan, Jake Hodder, Stephen Legg and Benjamin J. Thorpe 11
Part I State internationalism
2 Ambassadors, activists and experts: Conferencing and the
internationalization of international relations in the nineteenth
century Brian Vick 39
3 Contesting representations of indigeneity at the First Inter-American
Indigenista Congress, 1940 Joanna Crow 55
4 Awe and espionage at Lancaster House: The African decolonization
conferences of the early 1960s Peter Docking 70
Part II Science, civil society and the state
5 Conferencing the aerial future Martin Mahony 87
6 Scientific internationalism in a time of crisis: The Month of Intellectual
Cooperation at the 1937 Paris World Fair Jonathan Voges 104
7 Between camaraderie and rivalry: Geopolitics at the
eighteenth International Geographical Congress, Rio de Janeiro,
1956 Mariana Lamego 118
Part III Permanent institutions
8 Spectacular peacebuilding: The League of Nations and internationalist
visions at interwar World Expos Wendy Asquith 137
9 Re-situating Bretton Woods: Site and venue in relation to the United
Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, June 1944 Giles Scott-Smith 160
vi Contents
10 Countenancing and conferencing Japan at the Institute of Pacific
Relations, 1945–54 Daniel Clayton and Hannah Fitzpatrick 178
Part IV Political networks
11 Alternative internationalisms in East Asia: The Conferences of the
Asian Peoples, Japanese–Chinese rivalry and Japanese imperialism,
1924–43 Torsten Weber 199
12 Partnership in/against empire: Pan-African and imperial conferencing
after the Second World War Marc Matera 216
13 Skies that bind: Air travel in the Bandung era Su Lin Lewis 234
Index 253
Figures
1.1 ‘Die Kongokonferenz in Berlin’, 1884, by Adalbert von Rößler 17
1.2 The League of Nations Commission on Opium and Other Narcotic
Drugs, in session at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, 15 May 1939 21
1.3 Smt. Vijay Lakshmi Pandit reading out the message that had come
from Dr Tai Chi-táo, ‘a great Chinese friend’, at the Asian Relations
Conference, 24 March 1947 26
1.4 U Hla Aung, Genda Sing, U Ba Swe and Soerjomo Koesoemo Wijono
presiding at the Second Asian Socialist Conference in Bombay,
1 November 1956 28
2.1 ‘The Anti-Slavery Society Convention’, 1840, by Benjamin Robert Haydon 45
5.1 The empire as a space of aerial flows: Meteorological conditions
along the England–India route 92
5.2 The arrangement of the main conference room at the 1929
empire meteorology gathering 97
8.1 ‘It’s them fighting again!’ Detail from ‘Dessins de A. Dubout:
A L’Expo’, Candide, 15 Juillet 1937 140
8.2 Carte Postale showing the exterior of the Peace Pavilion
captioned ‘Cher . . . . Le Pavillon ou la nuit – avec un immense
foule d’Ancien Combattants . . .’ 141
8.3 Mural depicting youth movements for peace within the
‘Grand Salle’ of the Peace Pavilion 143
8.4 Artist’s impression of the League of Nations’ Pavilion, New York
World’s Fair 146
8.5 ‘The Good Samaritan’, a bas-relief in wood which was displayed
among the Health Section’s exhibits in Room Two of the League
Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair 148
8.6 Installation view of Room Six within the League Pavilion at the
New York World’s Fair, showing lighting and architectural features
surrounding central sculpted figures 149
8.7 Installation view of Room Three within the League Pavilion at the
New York World’s Fair, showing display panel titled ‘Wards of
Civilization’ representing the work of the Permanent Mandates
Commission 152
9.1 The scenic location of the Mount Washington Hotel, surrounded
by the White Mountains 162
9.2 John Maynard Keynes and Henry Morgenthau confer on
the hotel veranda following the opening of the conference, 1 July 1944 168
viii Figures
10.1 Edward Carter and William Holland in China during the
Second World War 183
10.2 Round-table discussion (future of Japan), IPR International Conference,
Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs, Virginia 184
10.3 Pierre Gourou outside the Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs,
with conference delegates 184
11.1 ‘World Affairs at a Glance’, 1926, compiled by Charles Hodges 200
11.2 ‘Scenes from the site of the Conference of Asian Peoples’ 204
12.1 The audience listening to speakers at the Pan-African Congress
in Manchester 222
12.2 Oulton Hall, Clacton-on-Sea 228
13.1 Air India route map, October 1958, Detail of Asia-Africa-Europe route 236
13.2 Nasser, U Nu, Nehru and Egyptian minister Salah Salem
celebrating the Water Festival in Rangoon en route to the
1955 Bandung conference 239
13.3 Hamid Algadri’s personal photo album, featuring his arrival
into Tunis in 1958 242
Contributors
Wendy Asquith is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Liverpool, UK.
Daniel Clayton is Professor of Geography at the University of St Andrews, UK.
Joanna Crow is Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of
Bristol, UK.
Peter Docking is a visiting researcher in the Department of History at King’s College
London, UK.
Hannah Fitzpatrick is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of
Edinburgh, UK.
Mike Heffernan is Professor of Historical Geography at the University of
Nottingham, UK.
Jake Hodder is Assistant Professor in the School of Geography at the University of
Nottingham, UK.
Mariana Lamego is Associate Professor of Cultural Geography at the Universidade do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Stephen Legg is Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Su Lin Lewis is Associate Professor in Modern Global History at the University of
Bristol, UK.
Martin Mahony is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of East Anglia, UK.
Marc Matera is Associate Professor of History and Co-director of the Center for
Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.
Giles Scott-Smith holds the Roosevelt Chair in New Diplomatic History at Leiden
University, and is the academic director of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies
in Middelburg, USA.
Benjamin J. Thorpe is a teaching associate within the School of Geography at the
University of Nottingham, UK.
