This book provides a survey of the history of the American Red Cross (ARC) from the perspective of its leadership. Although it is a top-down history of the ARC, it is very much a social history rooted in US history, exploring the way the organization dealt with and was impacted by wider issues of race, class, and gender in the period from the Civil War to the New Deal. As with much recent writing on the humanitarian movements of the past, Moser Jones's book makes the point that many of the dilemmas facing organizations today are not new: the tensions between humanity and neutrality; the recurrence of disasters in certain afflicted parts of the world; the compounding of human and natural disasters.

Moser Jones has a clear argument that this original humanitarian organization, and thus by extension all those that followed, are both affected by and affect the political and social contexts in which they operate. Despite the ARC's reputation for carefully preserved “neutrality,” the term has in fact meant different things at different times. “By critically interrogating the organization's principles, practices, and policies,” Moser Jones hopes to “explode the myth that the ARC as a sacred national trust operates above interests of class, race, and politics” (viii).

The book is organized chronologically, and is presented for a popular audience. It is based on extensive primary research in the archives of the ARC and the writings of its leaders, as well as newspapers. The first section deals with the development of Clara Barton's Red Cross, covering the period from her work in the Civil War through 1900. This period in the organization was characterized by Barton's personal choices and the relationships with powerful people that she was able to develop and exploit, from Presidents to European aristocracy, as she promoted her goals at home and abroad. The second section picks up with Barton's resignation in 1900. Under the guidance of her successor, Mabel Boardman, this was a period of rapid expansion and decentralization, which picked up speed during World War I. The final section covers the period between the wars, when the ARC faced a battle to maintain its position in the face of federal government expansion during the New Deal. The epilogue continues the exploration of the connections of the ARC to US social history through to the present. The narrative takes the reader from one emergency to the next, exploring the organizational, practical, political and social contexts that influenced the ARC's actions.

Issues of race, class and gender are explored throughout the book and contribute a valuable understanding of why the ARC behaved as it did, and how it evolved to reflect the society it was aiding. Discussions of the Tulsa riots and the recurring problem of uneven provision of aid through local mediators in the US South or tensions between employer donors and white labouring recipients are particularly valuable for drawing comparisons with the struggles of the modern aid industry.

Although the chronological approach may have been chosen to appeal to a popular audience, it is not always the most effective for conveying the stories that Moser Jones wants to tell. She has to rush to get through “what happened,” drawing out thematic issues where they arise, but treating them in a less than thorough or focussed way. While this approach is useful for showing the repeated encounters with these themes of American social history, it is less useful when it overlooks potentially fruitful areas of critical exploration. For instance, although newspapers constitute an important source base, there is little critical discussion of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century press and its developing relationship with philanthropy, humanitarianism and aid. This point recurs frequently as Moser Jones looks to newspapers as the reporters of the calamities that occupied the ARC, as self-contained fundraising units, and as reporters of ARC aid efforts in times of emergency. The description of the “Newspaper War” that occurred between Barton and Boardman's factions of the ARC would especially benefit from a deeper exploration of the relationship with the press. This would also add value for scholars of contemporary humanitarian aid, whom it is clear the author wishes to reach.

This is a work of interest to those curious about the history of an American institution and its relationship with the development of American social history. As Moser Jones notes, humanitarian organizations are never truly independent from local circumstances. This survey makes clear for the general reader through this quintessential “humanitarian” organization that humanitarianism is always inseparable from considerations of race, class and gender.