The Parliament of Man is the first definitive history of the United Nations, from one of America's greatest living historians.Distinguished scholar Paul Kennedy, author of the bestselling The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, gives us a thorough and timely account that explains the UN's roots and functions while also casting an objective eye on its effectiveness and its prospects for success in meeting the challenges that lie ahead. Kennedy shows the UN for what it is: fallible, human-based, often dependent on the whims of powerful national governments or the foibles of individual administrators—yet also utterly indispensable. With his insightful grasp of six decades of global history, Kennedy convincingly argues that "it is difficult to imagine how much more riven and ruinous our world of six billion people would be if there had been no UN."

"An artful study . . . that helps to set the record straight. . . . His assemblage of data is extraordinary."
—The New York Times

“Kennedy traces this . . . story with concision, grace, and fairness. Nearly every page contains some delicious morsel . . . reflecting Kennedy’s intelligence and deep knowledge of world affairs.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Amid the morass of commissions and conferences, and failures like Rwanda, he manages to find something convincingly heroic.”
—The New Yorker