When an organization celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, there is good reason to look back and to look forward. This is what the staff of the Humanistisch Archief (the Humanist Archives) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, thought two years ago, when they were appointed the official keeper of the archives of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). The IHEU, the world federation of humanist, rationalist, secular, atheist and ethical culture organizations founded in 1952, enthusiastically welcomed their idea. Would it not be an idea to describe the IHEU's fifty years of history in a book? And would not such a publication also gain in value by complementing its historical account by a comment on IHEU and world Humanism today? So we set about circulating statements by two IHEU leaders and inviting some young humanists from around the world to react to their ideas, and to discuss their own views of the future of Humanism. As IHEU would celebrate its anniversary with a jubilee congress in the Netherlands, where it had been founded, we saw this also as a nice occasion to publicly present the book. We hope that this publication captures the vision and enthusiasm of the founding fathers, the leaders, the volunteers and professionals of a unique organization, and that it also provides some stimulating perspectives for the future of International Humanism. We hope you will enjoy the result of this co-production.

Bert Gasenbeek*
Babu Gogineni+

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* Bert Gasenbeek (1953, the Netherlands) obtained a MA at the University of Amsterdam. He is Managing Director of the Humanist Archives and the Library of the University for Humanistics. He has published on various topics from the history of humanism.
+ Babu Gogineni (1968, India) is a former French language teacher at the Alliance Franà§aise of Hyderabad. He was Joint Secretary of the Indian Radical Humanist Association and Trustee of the Indian Renaissance Institute. He co-edited the books Rationalist Essays and The Humanist Way.

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International Humanist and Ethical Union 1952-2002
Past, present and future
Bert Gasenbeek and Babu Gogineni (eds.)
Copyright © 2002 by De Tijdstroom uitgeverij.
Republished 2006 at http://www.iheu.org with permission
ISBN 90 5898 041 3 nur 730, 740
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The entire book is also available, with illustrations, as a PDF ebook on this web site.