UNA-USA Summer Reading + Podcast Suggestions

Happy Summer! In the theme of summer reading lists, we have some reading suggestions from our UNA-USA team. Don’t worry, it isn’t required…

The First Ladies By Marie Benedict, and Victoria Christopher Murray

A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian.

The Naked Diplomat: Understanding Power and Politics in the Digital Age by Tom Fletcher

Who will be in power in the 21st century? Governments? Big business? Internet titans? And how do we influence the future? Digital technology is changing power at a faster rate than any time in history. Distrust and inequality are fuelling political and economic uncertainty. The scaffolding built around the global order is fragile, and the checks and balances created over centuries to protect liberty are being tested, maybe to destruction. Tom Fletcher, the youngest senior British ambassador for two hundred years, considers how we – as governments, businesses, individuals – can survive and thrive in the twenty first century. And how we can ensure that technology can make it easier of citizens truly to take back control.

The Catch Me If You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World by Jessica Nabongo 

In this inspiring travelogue, celebrated traveler and photographer Jessica Nabongo―the first Black woman on record to visit all 195 countries in the world―shares her journey around the globe with fascinating stories of adventure, culture, travel musts, and human connections.

The UN Association–USA: A Little Known History of Advocacy and Action by James Wurst

Little known outside a small community of insiders, the United Nations Association–USA has had an impact on both the UN and the US-UN relationship far greater than its size would suggest. James Wurst explores that impact as he traces the sometimes tortuous history of the UNA-USA from its earliest days to the present. Beginning with efforts in support of the creation of the United Nations―and covering the decades-long campaign to promote the UN to the US public, the role of Eleanor Roosevelt, the decline of popular support, Track II diplomacy with Iran and the Soviet Union, and much more―Wurst draws on a wealth of archival material and personal interviews to tell an honest, and long overdue, story of the UNA-USA’s persistence, problems, and achievements.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert