The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

by Susan Pedersen

2017 Honorable Mention in History and Social Sciences

Jury Statement (Honorable Mention)

In this beautifully crafted book, Susan Pedersen presents the reader with an intriguing story of an internationalist path-not-taken. Though far from romanticizing the League of Nations, Pedersen has written a sympathetic history of a time of lost opportunities that spans the globe. In essence, the mandates system, which the book explores in fascinating detail, represented a moment of imperial planning and aspirations of high order, an attempt by the League of Nations to realize the reforming potential of empires on a global scale. Of course, the “guardians” failed. This is imperial history and global history of a high order. Most interestingly, Pedersen tells what would seem at first glance a tale of inevitability as one hinging on contingency. An internationalist vision among the mandates system did not emerge by design; rather, as she suggests, vying interests and imperial interests under the internationalist umbrella of the system made for willy-nilly internationalization, even if extraordinary pressures pushed against its success. The Guardians is a compelling read, an expansive and rigorously done piece of work.