A Worldly Affair: Pamela Hanlon with James Wurst

The relationship between the United Nations and the city of New York? It’s complicated.

The United Nations has called the east side of Manhattan home for more than 70 years. The bond has been likened to a long marriage—both quarrelsome and committed. In A Worldly Affair, Pamela Hanlon tells the story of this hot and cold romance, from the 1940s, when Mayor La Guardia was determined to bring the new world body to New York, to the UN’s flat rejection, then abrupt change of heart in the face of a Rockefeller gift, and on to the tense, troubling years that followed. Racial prejudice and anti-communist sentiment challenged the delegates. Spies, scofflaws, and controversies angered New Yorkers. The growth of the UN placed demands on the surrounding area for office space, security, and housing and schools for the international community. But as the UN moves into its eighth decade in New York, adding nearly $4 billion to the New York economy each year, it seems like the marriage was meant to last.

Hanlon will be joined in conversation by James Wurst, journalist and author of The UN Association–USA: A Little Known History of Advocacy and Action, a history of the popular movement that helped create the United Nations.











When: Wed., Oct. 10, 2018 at 6:30 pm
Where: New York Public Library—Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library
476 Fifth Ave. (42nd St. Entrance)
212-340-0863
Price: Free
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The relationship between the United Nations and the city of New York? It’s complicated.

The United Nations has called the east side of Manhattan home for more than 70 years. The bond has been likened to a long marriage—both quarrelsome and committed. In A Worldly Affair, Pamela Hanlon tells the story of this hot and cold romance, from the 1940s, when Mayor La Guardia was determined to bring the new world body to New York, to the UN’s flat rejection, then abrupt change of heart in the face of a Rockefeller gift, and on to the tense, troubling years that followed. Racial prejudice and anti-communist sentiment challenged the delegates. Spies, scofflaws, and controversies angered New Yorkers. The growth of the UN placed demands on the surrounding area for office space, security, and housing and schools for the international community. But as the UN moves into its eighth decade in New York, adding nearly $4 billion to the New York economy each year, it seems like the marriage was meant to last.

Hanlon will be joined in conversation by James Wurst, journalist and author of The UN Association–USA: A Little Known History of Advocacy and Action, a history of the popular movement that helped create the United Nations.

Buy tickets/get more info now