Brock Chisholm, the World Health Organization, and the Cold War

Abstract

This is the story of a man and an institution. Brock Chisholm was one of the most influential Canadians of the twentieth century. A world-renowned psychiatrist, he was the first director-general of the World Health Organization, and built it up against overwhelming political odds in the years immediately following the Second World War. During Chisholm’s lifetime, the only other Canadians as internationally prominent were Lester B. Pearson and Marshall McLuhan. Yet today he has been largely forgotten – perhaps because he was so controversial. An atheist and a fierce critic of jingoistic nationalism, he supported world peace and world government and became a champion of the United Nations and the WHO. Official histories of the WHO place the organization in a political vacuum, but John Farley focuses on the battles Chisholm and his allies waged during the early Cold War, as the United States and the Soviet Union eyed each other warily and the Roman Catholic Church flexed its muscle on morally sensitive medical issues. Post-1945 international politics, global health issues, and medical history intersect in this highly readable account of a remarkable Canadian.

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