FDR AND THE CREATION OF THE U.N., by Townsend Hoopes and Douglas Brinkley (Yale University Press, 288 pages, $30.00).
Award-winning historians Hoopes and Brinkley draw upon historical narratives, primary documents, and a wide range of photographs to detail the story of the founding of the United Nations (U.N.), which was formally established at San Francisco in April 1945. Much of the book is devoted to the efforts of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), whose goal was to create a world organization that would maintain international peace. The authors reveal details of the United States’ role in creating the U.N. and demonstrate that, in spite of the disagreements that occur within “a confederation of states each insistent on its sovereign rights[,] the United Nations has managed to survive for more than fifty years” and is still making significant contributions to world peace.
