Marcos Cueto is Professor of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro the main Brazilian biomedical institute, and is co-editor of the journal História, Ciências Saúde – Manguinhos. His book, co-authored with Steven Palmer, Medicine and Public Health in Latin America: A History (Cambridge, 2015) won the 2017 George Rosen award of the American Association for the History of Medicine. Theodore M. Brown is Professor of History in the School of Arts and Sciences and of Public Health Sciences and Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester, New York. He is an Associate Editor (History) of the American Journal of Public Health. Elizabeth Fee passed away on October 17, 2018. She was at that time the senior historian at the National Library of Medicine. She was a prolific scholar who authored, co-authored, and edited many books including the co-authored book with Theodore M. Brown, Making Medical History: The Life and Times of Henry E. Sigerist (1997).

'Finally, an up-to-date history of the World Health Organization. This deft account spans the institution's aspirational post-World War II beginnings, the tensions and turnarounds of the Cold War period, and the embattled contemporary era of private encroachment on WHO turf. The authors bring together the contentious politics, personae, and programs through a grand narrative and little-known inside stories.' Anne-Emanuelle Birn, University of Toronto

• Introduction; 1. The making of an international health establishment; 2. The birth of the World Health Organization, 1945–8; 3. The start-up years, 1948–55; 4. The Cold War and eradication; 5. Overcoming the warming of the Cold War: smallpox eradication; 6. The transition from 'family planning' to 'sexual and reproductive rights'; 7. The vicissitudes of primary health care; 8. The response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; 9. An embattled director-general and the persistence of the WHO; 10. The competitive world of global health; 11. The World Health Organization in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Marcos Cueto is Professor of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro the main Brazilian biomedical institute, and is co-editor of the journal História, Ciências Saúde – Manguinhos. His book, co-authored with Steven Palmer, Medicine and Public Health in Latin America: A History (Cambridge, 2015) won the 2017 George Rosen award of the American Association for the History of Medicine. Theodore M. Brown is Professor of History in the School of Arts and Sciences and of Public Health Sciences and Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester, New York. He is an Associate Editor (History) of the American Journal of Public Health. Elizabeth Fee passed away on October 17, 2018. She was at that time the senior historian at the National Library of Medicine. She was a prolific scholar who authored, co-authored, and edited many books including the co-authored book with Theodore M. Brown, Making Medical History: The Life and Times of Henry E. Sigerist (1997).

'Finally, an up-to-date history of the World Health Organization. This deft account spans the institution's aspirational post-World War II beginnings, the tensions and turnarounds of the Cold War period, and the embattled contemporary era of private encroachment on WHO turf. The authors bring together the contentious politics, personae, and programs through a grand narrative and little-known inside stories.' Anne-Emanuelle Birn, University of Toronto

• Introduction; 1. The making of an international health establishment; 2. The birth of the World Health Organization, 1945–8; 3. The start-up years, 1948–55; 4. The Cold War and eradication; 5. Overcoming the warming of the Cold War: smallpox eradication; 6. The transition from 'family planning' to 'sexual and reproductive rights'; 7. The vicissitudes of primary health care; 8. The response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; 9. An embattled director-general and the persistence of the WHO; 10. The competitive world of global health; 11. The World Health Organization in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Marcos Cueto is Professor of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro the main Brazilian biomedical institute, and is co-editor of the journal História, Ciências Saúde – Manguinhos. His book, co-authored with Steven Palmer, Medicine and Public Health in Latin America: A History (Cambridge, 2015) won the 2017 George Rosen award of the American Association for the History of Medicine. Theodore M. Brown is Professor of History in the School of Arts and Sciences and of Public Health Sciences and Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester, New York. He is an Associate Editor (History) of the American Journal of Public Health. Elizabeth Fee passed away on October 17, 2018. She was at that time the senior historian at the National Library of Medicine. She was a prolific scholar who authored, co-authored, and edited many books including the co-authored book with Theodore M. Brown, Making Medical History: The Life and Times of Henry E. Sigerist (1997).

'Finally, an up-to-date history of the World Health Organization. This deft account spans the institution's aspirational post-World War II beginnings, the tensions and turnarounds of the Cold War period, and the embattled contemporary era of private encroachment on WHO turf. The authors bring together the contentious politics, personae, and programs through a grand narrative and little-known inside stories.' Anne-Emanuelle Birn, University of Toronto

• Introduction; 1. The making of an international health establishment; 2. The birth of the World Health Organization, 1945–8; 3. The start-up years, 1948–55; 4. The Cold War and eradication; 5. Overcoming the warming of the Cold War: smallpox eradication; 6. The transition from 'family planning' to 'sexual and reproductive rights'; 7. The vicissitudes of primary health care; 8. The response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; 9. An embattled director-general and the persistence of the WHO; 10. The competitive world of global health; 11. The World Health Organization in the second decade of the twenty-first century.