Uniting Nations is a comparative study of Britons who worked in the United Nations and international non-governmental and civil society organizations from 1945 to 1970 and their role in forging the postwar international system. Daniel Gorman interweaves the personal histories of scores of individuals who worked in UN organizations, the world government movement, Quaker international volunteer societies, and colonial freedom societies to demonstrate how international public policy often emerged \’from the ground up.\’ He reveals the importance of interwar, Second World War, colonial, and voluntary experiences in inspiring international careers, how international and national identities intermingled in the minds of international civil servants and civil society activists, and the ways in which international policy is personal. It is in the personal relationships forged by international civil servants and activists, positive and negative, biased and altruistic, short-sighted or visionary, that the international is to be found in the postwar international order.

• Details how Britons helped and hindered decolonisation through their work in the UN and in international voluntary associations
• Illustrates how Britons adapted to the post-WWII era by embracing internationalism
• Appeals to a broad range of scholars interested in the history of international organisations, international civil society, humanitarianism, international history and post-war British history, as well as scholars of international relations