Uniting Nations
Britons and Internationalism, 1945–1970

A study of the personal histories and interconnected lives and careers of the Britons who worked at the United Nations after 1945.

Daniel Gorman (Author)

9781316512975, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 July 2022

296 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.3 cm, 0.58 kg

'This book deserves a wide readership. Its argument, intervention, and methodological insights would make it especially compelling reading material for discussions in graduate seminars. At the same time, its accessible writing and episodic form would easily allow individual chapters to be assigned in undergraduate courses. It will ultimately be an important resource for academic audiences in international history and modern British history; those interested in histories of decolonization, anticolonial activism, and transnational social movements; and for readers in development studies and related fields.' Daniel Gipper, H-Net Reviews

Uniting Nations is a comparative study of Britons who worked in the United Nations and international non-governmental and civil society organizations from 1945 to 1970 and their role in forging the postwar international system. Daniel Gorman interweaves the personal histories of scores of individuals who worked in UN organizations, the world government movement, Quaker international volunteer societies, and colonial freedom societies to demonstrate how international public policy often emerged 'from the ground up.' He reveals the importance of interwar, Second World War, colonial, and voluntary experiences in inspiring international careers, how international and national identities intermingled in the minds of international civil servants and civil society activists, and the ways in which international policy is personal. It is in the personal relationships forged by international civil servants and activists, positive and negative, biased and altruistic, short-sighted or visionary, that the “international” is to be found in the postwar international order.

Introduction
1. International lives: Britons at the UN Secretariat
2. Global security, peacekeeping, and civilian aid
3. Global social governance
4. The dreamers: The world parliament movement
5. An experiment in international cooperation: The Friends Ambulance Unit Postwar and International Service, 1946–1959
6. The Movement for Colonial Freedom
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]