Calculating compassion

Relief work, the organised effort to help people in crisis, has received little scholarly attention so far. Drawing on newly examined archives, this study looks at what concerned nineteenth-century relief workers and how their priorities still shape aid efforts today. It covers the origins of well-known British organisations, including the British Red Cross Society, founded in 1870, and the Save the Children Fund UK, founded in 1919. It also examines smaller groups that have since disappeared. Throughout, the author questions whether humanitarian aid has ever rested on one shared set of values.