"This small book makes a large and provocative argument. According to Akira Iriye, scholars have been so preoccupied with high politics and state-centered activities that they have failed to pay attention to other phenomena that better explain the emergence of the contemporary world. This history of international organizations in the twentieth century is a pioneering effort to remedy that shortcoming. . . . Iriye opens up exciting new vistas on globalization and recent international history."--Frank Ninkovich, author of "The United States and Imperialism""This remarkable book shifts the focus of postwar international history away from Cold War rivalries and onto the astonishingly robust growth of international non-governmental organizations. A powerful voice for internationalism, Akira Iriye should be required reading for the twenty-first century."--Emily S. Rosenberg, author of "Financial Missionaries to the World""Non-governmental organizations now number in the tens of thousands and have for at least a century been shaping international affairs, not to mention our individual lives. Akira Iriye's thesis--that these organizations (whose historical evolution and context we've known far too little about until this pioneering work) pieced together a globalized community while state politics often threatened to tear it apart--is vigorously argued, full of insight into historical turning points, and another of his original contributions to international history."--Walter LaFeber, Cornell University
