U.N. for Beginners

In addition to teaching me new things, "For Beginners" books provide me with sheer reading pleasure, and this book is no exception. Before reading this book I often heard about the United Nations in the news, had some vague conception about what it is and the way it works, but never really understood the scope of its operations, or exactly how it works and why. This book revealed all this to me, and much more. From it, I learned about the history of the UN, it's charter, it's member organizations, the World Bank and IMF, peacekeeping missions, the World Court, UN personalities, and it's greatest failure: Palestine! The author does a tremendously good job explaining all these things, without making our heads reel from the sheer amount of information. This book contains slightly fewer illustrations that the typical "For Beginner's" book, and is crammed full of text passages, but still is highly readable and humorous. Truly enjoyable! Those of you who enjoyed this book will find a perfect complement in "Arabs and Israel for Beginners", by Ron David, a book that addresses what "The UN for Beginners" considers to be the greatest failure of the UN. I strongly recommend you buy both at the same time.

The UN is usually boring, and most of the books about it are too. But this really brings it to live despite being nine years old. I hope they return and reissue it to bring it up to date with the Iraq War. Would love to see what they make of the last few crazy years!

In addition to teaching me new things, "For Beginners" books provide me with sheer reading pleasure, and this book is no exception. Before reading this book I often heard about the United Nations in the news, had some vague conception about what it is and the way it works, but never really understood the scope of its operations, or exactly how it works and why. This book revealed all this to me, and much more. From it, I learned about the history of the UN, it's charter, it's member organizations, the World Bank and IMF, peacekeeping missions, the World Court, UN personalities, ...! The author does a tremendously good job explaining all these things, without making our heads reel from the sheer amount of information. This book contains slightly fewer illustrations that the typical "For Beginner's" book, and is crammed full of text passages, but still is highly readable and humorous. Truly enjoyable!Those of you who enjoyed this book will find a perfect complement in "Arabs and Israel for Beginners", by Ron David, a book that addresses what "The UN for Beginners" considers to be the greatest failure of the UN. I strongly recommend you buy both at the same time.

This book details the inner workings of the United Nations from an insider's perspective. I learned a lot, and I had thought I knew enough about the UN.