DanielGormanUniting Nations: Britons and Internationalism, 1945–1970. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022

Daniel Gorman is a Professor of History at Canada's University of Waterloo who has previously published studies on the history of international cooperation in the early 20th century. He is also co-editor of Before the UN Sustainable Developmental Goals: A Historical Companion (also published in 2022). In Uniting Nations: Britons and Internationalism, 1945–1970, Gorman traces (in part one) the careers and influence of hundreds of Britons in the United Nations and its various agencies and programs, and then in international civil society organizations and movements (in part two). Each part, in turn, consists of three chapters. Those in the latter part comprise three, widely different, case studies: the World Parliament Movement (curiously titled here, “The Dreamers”), the Friends Ambulance Unit, and the Movement for Colonial Freedom. Gorman felt the need for this book because the many institutional histories of post-1945 international and voluntary organizations typically overlook the background and motivations of the thousands of individuals who worked in them, often in key, consequential roles. He says, “One of my claims in this book is that policy is personal” (4). The focus on Britons is explained by their prominence in post-1945 international organizations; for instance, they were, after those from the United States, the second-largest number of the UN's new employees. Many had gained experience in international governance through the British Colonial Service, the Indian Civil Service, or private voluntary work in the colonial world. Moreover, skills and experiences gained in World War II could, post-1945, be fruitfully transferred to global governance. Gorman documents how Commonwealth subjects, too, used their war service “as a springboard into the international civil service” (87). The author's familiarity with the subject, and the thoroughness of his research, are evident not only in the text, but also in the extensive notes and bibliography which together take up more than a quarter of the volume. Notable among the many archival sources that he has consulted is the United Nations Career Records Project (UNCRP) operated by the British Association of Former United Nations Civil Servants (BAFUNCS), based in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Among other primary sources used are, for instance, the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives and the Commonwealth Oral History Project. The biographies and autobiographies of many individuals, and histories of the international organizations and movements they have been associated with, also provide essential information for his narrative. This contextualization shows the various ways in which the post-World War II international career of many Britons was shaped by their earlier work in the colonial or domestic civil service, as well as how their skills, insights, and idealism benefited the international work (whether official or nonofficial in civil society organizations) they engaged in after 1945. Gorman's biographical approach is embedded in valuable descriptions and analyses of organizations and movements and discussion of challenges and opportunities that individuals were faced with, such as those in the United Kingdom's Mission to the UN regarding the colonial question, or the position and role of women in the international civil service. These discussions are among the most interesting aspects of his study, which also contains informative nuggets such as that only four of the 850 delegates at the 1945 San Francisco conference were women (none of them British). Gorman writes, “Despite this gender imbalance, these women made lasting contributions to the UN Charter”; for instance, the reference in the preamble to “we the people” the world owes to the American academic Virginia Gildersleeve (31). He also draws attention to the vital role of women, especially British women, in the often underappreciated areas of translation, document collection, and knowledge dissemination. At times, acronyms of organizations and names of individuals tumble off the page, making reading wearisome. Individuals come and go—most making only a fleeting appearance. A few, such as Fenner Brockway, appear (justifiably) throughout the volume; however, a chapter devoted to him— rather than snippets here and there—would have demonstrated his vital contributions to internationalism more effectively. This suggestion also applies to several others, such as Brian Urquhart and Philip Noel-Baker. Perhaps a more effective way of demonstrating the author's thesis would have been through a focus not on organizations and movements, but on two or three dozen pre-eminent British internationalists (many of whom are Quakers). In his chapter on the two post-1945 organizations formed by the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU), Gorman writes that they “had long played an outsized role in international humanitarian campaigns” (126); his book shows that this also applies to their involvement in internationalism more broadly defined. A notable absentee among British internationalists is Clarence W. Jenks, whose work in the International Labour Organization (and its predecessor) stretched from the 1930s to the 1970s when he was its director-general. Gorman mentions the notion of functional international governance, but not David Mitrany, who is widely considered its pioneer as well as one of the instigators of European governance. The usefulness of the present volume would have been greatly enhanced by the inclusion of an appendix listing the hundreds of Britons who are mentioned, together with concise information on their involvement in one or more organizations. Such an appendix is especially necessary since the index is wholly inadequate: whether a person is included or not seems to have been decided randomly. Perhaps hundreds of names are absent, including key individuals such as Mohandas Gandhi's close friend, Horace Alexander, and agriculturalist Herbert Stewart, a prominent member of the Indian Civil Service who, following his retirement, became much involved with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the World Bank. Gorman writes that the chapter on the organizations created by the FAU “aimed to name the nameless” (151), and this is the great merit of his book as a whole. That many remain nameless in the index is, therefore, all the more to be regretted. This omission applies to Britons as well as to those “colonial nationalists” and anti-apartheid campaigners they supported (through the Movement for Colonial Freedom, the subject of the last, and most interesting, case study). Among the former are, for instance, Barbara Castle, John Collins, Eileen Fletcher, Trevor Huddleston, and Michael Scott, and among the latter are Hastings Banda, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius Nyerere. In a book of this kind, a comprehensive index should have been regarded as especially important. It is sobering to read in the conclusion that, in the aftermath of World War II, many Britons were “guardedly optimistic about the potential for international governance to maintain world peace” and “supportive of devolving sovereignty to international organizations” and “turning over its armed forces to a world parliament if other states did the same” (184). At a time when “my country first” has widespread support (not least in the United Kingdom and the United States), it is salutary to be reminded of the aspirations and achievements of an earlier generation. Peter van den Dungen was a lecturer/visiting lecturer in peace studies at the University of Bradford, UK (1976–2015). He is also the founder and was the honorary general coordinator of the International Network of Museums for Peace (1992–2017). He is a founding member of the Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute in The Hague, and he received, in 2021, the Peace History Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.

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