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Book Cover for: Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World, Thant Myint-U

Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World

Thant Myint-U

Born in a remote town in Burma and a practicing Buddhist, U Thant was for a time, one of the most important men in the world. Respected and consulted by both superpowers, U Thant, as the world's preeminent diplomat, embodied the aspirations of the new nations of Asia and Africa only recently free of colonial domination.

Drawing on newly declassified documents, historian Thant Myint-U reveals startling new information about U Thant's bold interventions during the Cold War, including his crucial role in preventing nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, his mediation between India and Pakistan and in the Middle East, his challenges against America's war in Vietnam, and his battles against white supremacy in the Congo and southern Africa. Rather than vestiges of an idealistic past, U Thant's efforts toward global peace, environmental protection, and justice for the newly decolonized world are central to a fresh understanding of our world today.

Book Details

  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • Publish Date: Sep 9th, 2025
  • Pages: 384
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
  • EAN: 9781324051978
  • Categories: • Modern - 20th Century - General• Political• Presidents & Heads of State

About the Author

Myint-U, Thant: - Thant Myint-U is an award-winning historian, writer, and conservationist, and the grandson of former UN Secretary-General U Thant. He has authored four books and lives in Cambridge, UK.

More books by Thant Myint-U

Book Cover for: The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma, Thant Myint-U
Book Cover for: The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century, Thant Myint-U
Book Cover for: Where China Meets India, Thant Myint-U
Book Cover for: The Making of Modern Burma, Thant Myint-U

Praise for this book

Beautiful, gripping, and indispensable, this biography of the longest-serving United Nations secretary-general is also a reminder of almost forgotten aspirations for a postcolonial world beyond endless war and enduring hierarchy. The dreams revisited in this eye-opening and uplifting book have an enormous claim on the attention of Americans at a crossroads in their relation to global affairs.--Samuel Moyn, author of The Last Utopia
A wonderful subject, beautifully written, evoking a world startlingly like and unlike our own - a reminder of paths tragically not taken, of idealism and cynicism - of how much the United Nations offered and could still offer. Essential reading for anyone interested in the origins and possibilities of our current global crisis.--Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge
Amazing. This book will come as a revelation even to scholars of the UN in the Cold War period.--Frances Fitzgerald, author of Fire in the Lake
A gift: a primer on the Cold War era, revives the pivotal role of U Thant--the first non-European to lead the UN--and foreshadowing the conflicts we face today.--Elizabeth Becker, author of You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War
U Thant devoted his life to the pursuit of peace in a fearsomely fractured world. With empathy, care, and scholarly rigor, Thant Myint-U reminds us that the truly courageous never abandoned their struggles for justice, even in the darkest of times.--Kevin Boyle, author of The Shattering: America in the 1960s