The Absolutely Indispensable Man

Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire

By: Kal Raustiala

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross, Leon Nixon

A legendary diplomat, scholar, and civil rights leader, Ralph Bunche was one of the most prominent Black Americans of the twentieth century. The first African American to obtain a political science Ph.D. from Harvard and a celebrated diplomat at the United Nations, he was once so famous he handed out the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Yet today Ralph Bunche is largely forgotten.

In The Absolutely Indispensable Man, Kal Raustiala restores Bunche to his rightful place in history. He shows that Bunche was not only a singular figure in midcentury America; he was also one of the key architects of the postwar international order. Raustiala tells the story of Bunche’s dramatic life, from his early years in prewar Los Angeles to UCLA, Harvard, the State Department, and the heights of global diplomacy at the United Nations. After narrowly avoiding assassination, Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize for his ground-breaking mediation of the first Arab-Israeli conflict, catapulting him to popular fame. A central player in some of the most dramatic crises of the Cold War, he pioneered conflict management and peacekeeping at the UN. But as Raustiala argues, his most enduring achievement was his work to dismantle European empire. Bunche perceptively saw colonialism as the central issue of the 20th century and decolonization as a project of global racial justice.

From marching with Martin Luther King to advising presidents and prime ministers, Ralph Bunche shaped our world in lasting ways. This definitive biography gives him his due. It also reminds us that postwar decolonization not only fundamentally transformed world politics, but also powerfully intersected with America’s own civil rights struggle.

©2023 Oxford University Press (P)2023 Recorded Books

Indispensable information in international institutions

Absolutely top notch coverage of the growth of the organizations for peace on earth and the era that birthed them. Indispensable to look at this part of the past if we are to keep an international system for the future.

Excellent - History & Human

An awesome walk through the development of the early United Nations, via the exploration of the successes and tribulations of Ralph Bunche. Bunche’s work at the UN touches on many foundations of the modern world, including the end of colonialism which created the modern Middle East and Africa (a lively and violent history) and, particularly prominent to readers in this moment, Israel. Bunche’s life at the front of international affairs also crosses over with the domestic civil rights movement, and with the cultural understanding of the world from within the United States. Beyond the global, it’s a compelling story about a striving man, whose arena was generally one of peace and political achievement in international cooperation, rather than personal power, wealth, or acclaim (although Bunche seems to have had the last as his most personally attractive vice - don’t we all have at least one!).

I strongly recommend giving it a read, even if only for the look inside the early Israel state from an American’s perspective.

Best book I have listened to in a while!

A great book. Great narrator and subject. Clearly an indispensable man, a man I knew nothing about. He was present at so many important moments. A great education on post war diplomacy. I have been pestering my family to read it so we can talk about it. Generally the book has to be amazing for me to pester them.

Everyone interested in 20th Century history should read it.