Strengthening the United Nations - (Bibliographies and Indexes in World History) by Joseph Preston Baratta (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is the most comprehensive bibliography available today on strengthening the United Nations and its system of international organizations. Particular attention is given to the concept, politics, and establishment of a world federation. This expansive reference work has been carefully compiled to accomodate a variety of research methods, and offers a general introduction, followed by brief introductions to each section. Most entries have precise and sometimes provocative annotations, often with cross-references, and many non-English works have been included.

Book Synopsis

This is the most comprehensive bibliography available today on strengthening the United Nations and its system of international organizations. Particular attention is given to the concept, politics, and establishment of a world federation. This expansive reference work has been carefully compiled to accomodate a variety of research methods, and offers a general introduction, followed by brief introductions to each section. Most entries have precise and sometimes provocative annotations, often with cross-references, and many non-English works have been included.

Review Quotes

?The book under review, Strengthening the United Nations, houses sources of such representative models. Compiled by Joseph P. Baratta, the UN representative for the World Association of World Federalists, this bibliography on UN reform and world federalism aims "to provide a reasonably exhaustive listing. . . of works from all countries and in all major languages dealing with the strengthening of the United Nations and its system of international organization" (p. 1). It achieves this aim admirably. With over thirty-two hundred entries, the last two hundred or so constituting addresses of current organizations which focus on or at least have as a part of their emphasis a change in the existing international system, the book includes sources ranging from film, plays and videos to dissertations, treatises, articles, books and other bibliographies. Further, it covers works from countries representing all areas of the globe: Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Germany, India, Israel, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sweden, the US, the USSR, and Yugoslavia, to name some. . . . The quality of the work is sufficiently rich and varied that one could select many an additional feature to emphasize. . . . Apart from the rich sources that the book makes available, the guiding themes which undergird it, the insightful historical glimpses so many of its sections offer, and the dynamic political and intellectual environment it forces about--not actually having yet read--the sources, the work wombs a very thought-provoking claim: that the cold war, which has been responsible for thwarting the realization of so many promising possibilities after World WarII, was the offspring of a failure to create a stronger UN. Many might contend that if this claim is accurate, the truth it contain is, by and of itself, sufficient to warrant an immediate strengthening of the UN. The volume is well researched, carefully organized--in the latter regard, its indexes and cross references are particularly important features, and very timely. It, along with Edmund Osmanczyk's Encyclopedia of the United Nations, are two of the most important books published in the area of international relations in the 1980s. For those who have felt isolated in their writing, thinking, or beliefs in world federalism or the strengthening of the UN, for teachers in the area of political science or international relations and law, for specialists in diplomatic history, foreign policy, international organization, or for those simply interested in the cause of peace, this volume is a must as a resource guide and companion. The compiler's interest in making additional entries as may be appropriate ensures that the volume will broadened and deepened with the passage of time. Congratulations to both the compiler and the publisher.?-Transnational Perspectives

"The book under review, Strengthening the United Nations, houses sources of such representative models. Compiled by Joseph P. Baratta, the UN representative for the World Association of World Federalists, this bibliography on UN reform and world federalism aims "to provide a reasonably exhaustive listing. . . of works from all countries and in all major languages dealing with the strengthening of the United Nations and its system of international organization" (p. 1). It achieves this aim admirably. With over thirty-two hundred entries, the last two hundred or so constituting addresses of current organizations which focus on or at least have as a part of their emphasis a change in the existing international system, the book includes sources ranging from film, plays and videos to dissertations, treatises, articles, books and other bibliographies. Further, it covers works from countries representing all areas of the globe: Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Germany, India, Israel, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sweden, the US, the USSR, and Yugoslavia, to name some. . . . The quality of the work is sufficiently rich and varied that one could select many an additional feature to emphasize. . . . Apart from the rich sources that the book makes available, the guiding themes which undergird it, the insightful historical glimpses so many of its sections offer, and the dynamic political and intellectual environment it forces about--not actually having yet read--the sources, the work wombs a very thought-provoking claim: that the cold war, which has been responsible for thwarting the realization of so many promising possibilities after World WarII, was the offspring of a failure to create a stronger UN. Many might contend that if this claim is accurate, the truth it contain is, by and of itself, sufficient to warrant an immediate strengthening of the UN. The volume is well researched, carefully organized--in the latter regard, its indexes and cross references are particularly important features, and very timely. It, along with Edmund Osmanczyk's Encyclopedia of the United Nations, are two of the most important books published in the area of international relations in the 1980s. For those who have felt isolated in their writing, thinking, or beliefs in world federalism or the strengthening of the UN, for teachers in the area of political science or international relations and law, for specialists in diplomatic history, foreign policy, international organization, or for those simply interested in the cause of peace, this volume is a must as a resource guide and companion. The compiler's interest in making additional entries as may be appropriate ensures that the volume will broadened and deepened with the passage of time. Congratulations to both the compiler and the publisher."-Transnational Perspectives

About the Author

JOSEPH PRESTON BARATTA, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of History at Worcester State College.