Armed with only a liberal-arts education, a vague sense of wanting to make the world a better place, and a pen, Obie C. Porteous spent five years in the world's most dangerous hot spots developing a hopeful vision of how even the most complicated problems can be solved from the bottom up.

In Search of Humanity: Blogs of an International Aid Worker traces the life of its author from the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Following his graduation from the University of Chicago, Porteous embarks on a series of assignments for the international humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger in Tajikistan, Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, and Eastern Indonesia, interspersed with his own independent travel and research. His story is told through the biweekly postings on his private blog, which include surprising observations of the local context, illustrations of what works and what doesn't in the world of international aid, and personal anecdotes about life in the remotest corners of the globe.