ABSTRACT
Health was the leading area of League of Nations (LoN) activity in which US foundations were involved, notably through the Rockefeller Foundation’s (RF) sustained funding for the Health Organization (HO) between 1922 and 1937. This contribution was not solely financial, as beginning in the 1910s the RF tried to comanage the implementation of an international health order based on developing and fostering communication between national health administrations in an effort to harmonize global standards. Through their respective activity and cooperation on certain subjects, the two organizations helped develop international networks of civil servants and health experts. This cooperation was not without rivalries, for the LoN and the RF had different conceptions of health. In the space of about 20 years, their competitive synergy transformed the international health landscape by promoting the circulation of people, practices, and ideas and brought international legitimacy to public health, making it a natural area of intervention for international organizations. As part of this process, the RF contributed as much to the internationalization of US health practices as it did to making the LoN’s work universal, a dynamic that paved the way for the World Health Organization (WHO) after 1945.
