“A wonderful subject, beautifully written, evoking a world startlingly like and unlike our own. ” Rory Stewart
In the early 1960s, a peaceful world seemed possible. The United Nations was regarded as humankind’s best hope for ending war. African and Asian nations, having recently won their freedom from colonial rule, sought influence on the world stage. Drawing on newly declassified documents, Thant Myint-U traces the tireless efforts of his grandfather, Secretary-General U Thant, a practising Buddhist and former schoolteacher from Burma, to bring peace to Vietnam, create a fairer international economy, safeguard the environment, and avoid war. Peacemaker is an extraordinary chronicle of a golden age of diplomacy, and vital to a fresh understanding of our world today.
Thant Myint-U is an award-winning writer, historian, conservationist, and international public servant. He is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University and a Senior Fellow of the United Nations Foundation. He is the author of The Making of Modern Burma, The River of Lost Footsteps, Where China Meets India, The Hidden History of Burma, and most recently, Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World .