United Nations: The First Fifty Years

by Stanley Meisler

Book Overview

In a lucid, colorful account, Stanley Meisler brings alive the personalities and events of the first fifty years of the United Nations. It is a story filled with action and heartbreak. "Stanley... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871136163
• ISBN13: 9780871136169
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

United Nations: The first fifty years

This book was in great condition and it was delivered promptly. I was told the book would be delivered in two weeks but I received it in two days. What an excellent service.

Underrated

I cannot recommend this book enough. Get it before it disappears from the world! (It was written in 1995) It is an easy, quick read filled with interesting quirks and quotes from the most important figures in recent history. It provides a condensed history of crisis, war, leaders and resolutions from 1945 to 1995. Definitely worth reading, it's the most entertaining way i have come across of learning 50 years of dynamic history.

Good for "UN 101", but a little thin

Meisler has done an excellent job in introducing the UN to the general public with a format and language that makes it an entertaining and easy read. The most intense crises that the UN faced since its creation after WWII are all here, as are some of the greater personalities like Ralph Bunche and Dag Hammarskjold.However, the book only briefly discusses the creation of the outlying organizations of the UN family - like UNESCO, UNICEF, and FAO. I find this to be a flaw due to the fact that these are the organizations that the UN is mostly associated with today - and not the major crises of the Cold War and beyond.But all in all Meisler has done a magnificent job that will deepen your understanding of the UN's origins, mission, potentials, and short-comings.

Essential Reading For Those Interested In World Politics

This book is a gem in terms of the analysis it presents. Its concise easy to read and broken in to parts which allows the reader to examine major events involving the united nations during the last 50 years. It of course deals with the establishment of the UN in 1945 and quickly moves to its first major test in 1948, the construction of a Palestinian settlement involving the Ralph Bunche who following his efforts received the noble peace prise. The reader gets enough information to work out exactly the main players and positions relating to many of the crisis which have faced the organisation since 1945. The Suez crisis of 1956 and the role of the Dag Hammershold receive particular attention. It explained the establishment of the first peace keeping force to be set up with a mandate agreed by the parties to the conflict. Later under the direction of Secretary General Uthant this force was withdrawn under pressure from the Egyptian Government leading ultimately to the Six-Day war of 1967. This and many other issues like it are examined with a critical eye. The book is not shy on pointing out the failures of the organisation however in doing this one is challenged to consider whether or not we could have afforded to live the last half century without some form of internationally agreed political/security organisation.

Very informative, easy to read.

This book was an assigned reading for my International Law and Organizations class, and I was really pleased with it. It's very interesting and easy to read (unlike a lot of other things we've been assigned to read). This book covers the history of the UN's first fifty years, and it deals a lot with people and personalities. Each chapter is about a crisis or event in the UN's history such as the 1967 Six-Day War, and each chapter is divided into much smaller sections of not more than a page, so it's easy to find places to stop reading, put the book down, and then be able to pick the book up again and continue reading without much effort in remembering where you left off. The other book we were assigned for this class provided the nuts and bolts of how the UN was formed, how it is organized, what's in the charter, etc. This book provided an excellent, practical view of how that organization and charter have been put to the test over the last fifty years.