War, Switzerland And The History Of The Red Cross
The Red Cross was the inspiration - the dream - of Henri Dunant, a 31-year-old Swiss businessman appalled by the butchery and lack of medical care for injured soldiers at the battle of Solferino in 1859. He set out to create an international organisation which was to alter, irrevocably, the fate of all those wounded in every war. Caroline Moorehead was granted unrestricted access to the extensive Red Cross archives in Geneva. This book traces the origins of the organisation, and uncovers some startling truths about the Red Cross and its relationship with some of the most horrific and barbaric political regimes of the twentieth century. It is a moving and authoritative history of the politics of conflict which sheds light not just on the Red Cross but on the nature of humanity itself.
