21. Parliament of Man by Paul Kennedy

Parliament of Man
Originally uploaded by buzby.

This somewhat superficial political history of the United Nations essentially concludes that it is a flawed entity but that it has been the source of much good in its 60 odd year history.

The author divides the work of the UN into three broad categories: world security, economy and charity.

The security council is the center of the UN's activities and its most powerful body but the ability of a single state to veto a security council resolution and, most recently, America's decision to do things without security council backing have left it quite impotent. The author is a little more kind on it than I am.

Throughout the cold war, as the Russians and Americans jockeyed for position the security council was totally hamstrung as either the Russians or Americans would veto resolutions backed by their adversary. There was a short rebirth after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the security council did a lot (some of it quite poorly) such as Bosnia, Somalia and Iraq 1 but with the emergence of Putin and the new order of world wide power politics that died. And today, as we see by the council's inability do anything difinitive against North Korea and Iran it is once again largely impotent.

Those countries unable to influence the security council embraced the economic and charitable realms of the security council where, again, the UN has done a lot of good but has been plagued by inneficiency and graft.

This is a reasonable book but one doesn't close the back cover feeling like you've learned something new.

20. The Scarlet Plague by Jack London

Another book that Mount Benson suggested that I read. This is one of Jack London's few science fiction books (although at 62 pages I think that it really is more of a short story). It was first published in 1912 London magazine and later as part of a book. It is the story of the world after almost all of its population has been killed by a devastating pandemic called the Scarlet Plague. The main character is an old man who is the last known person to have lived in the old world.

The author focuses on the general - moral, physical and sociological - decay of the world after the pandemic and is fascinated by how, in such a short period of time, civilization has been set back tens of thousands of years and has to rebuild itself to its previous majesty.

Even though it was written in 1912, London is stunningly prescient about what the future would look like. At the time of the pandemic which happened in about 2008 (note that today pandemic fears are all the rage) the world had eight billion people and there were motor cars everywhere according to London.

I highly recommend this book.

19. Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison

Written in 1967 and set in 1999 New York city, this is the story of a cop, a beautiful woman and a Chinese boy as they struggle through their lives. By 1999 the world is severely over populated and replacable resources have come to an end. England is one giant city, New York has a population of 35 million, the rest of the US is similarly over populated, water has to be rationed, there is no more food as we know it today and people are basically at each other's throats.

I am not going to reveal the plot of the story as it would be too easy to spoil it for you. I do recommend this book it is an entertaining read.