Within the scope of the homonymous exhibition, inaugurated earlier this year at the National Library of Portugal and open until 27 June, the book “Sociedade das Nações (1920-1946): Promesas e Legados” [League of Nations (1920.1946): Promises and Legacies] was launched, with the coordination of Pedro Aires Oliveira.

In a video published on the IHC’s YouTube channel, the coordinator explains that the book serves a “double purpose”: that of a catalog, given that “its structure faithfully reproduces the structure of the exhibition itself, with each chapter corresponding to each of different exhibits”; and one of historical synthesis, presenting “a state of the art about this important institution, its antecedents, its trajectory, and its legacies”.

On the other hand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, also in a video testimony published on the same channel, emphasizes the importance of the updated knowledge disseminated in this book, which allows for “a balanced assessment of the legacy of the League of Nations, its results and failures ”.

The book, as well as the exhibition, was designed by a team of researchers from the Institute of Contemporary History, both from the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and the University of Évora, and the ISCTE-IUL Center for Social Studies. It was published by Diplomatic Institute and the National Library of Portugal.

For those who could not physically visit the exhibition, you can do it from a distance, through the website of the virtual exhibition, implemented in collaboration with the Digital Humanities Lab of the Institute of Contemporary History.