"Stephen Schlesinger is a Fellow at the Century Foundation in New York City. He is the former Director of the World Policy Institute at the New School (1997-2006) and former publisher of the quarterly magazine, The World Policy Journal.
Mr. Schlesinger received his BA from Harvard University and his JD from Harvard Law School. He spent four years as a staff writer at Time Magazine. In the mid 1990s, he worked at the United Nations at Habitat, the agency dealing with global cities. He is the author of three books, including; Bitter Fruit: The Story of the U.S. Coup in Guatemala (Doubleday 1982, with Stephen Kinzer) cited as one of the New York Times’ “notable books” which sold over 100,000 copies, and of course, his iconic book about UN history, Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations (Westview Press 2003), for which he won the 2004 President Harry S. Truman Book Award
Schlesinger is co-editor (with Andrew Schlesinger) of the best-selling Journals 1952-2000 Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., (Penguin Press 2007), and of The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr (Random House 2013). In 2016, Praeger reissued President John Kennedy’s first book, Why England Slept, for which he wrote a new introduction. He is a specialist on the United Nations and on the foreign policies of the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden Administrations. He has appeared in ten documentaries about the UN.
Stephen Schlesinger's book, Act of Creation: the Founding of the United Nations has had a great impact in academic, diplomatic, and journalistic circles
The Economist Magazine praises
“[Schlesinger’s] detailed account of the scheming, skullduggery, and political horse-trading behind the creation of the UN”
And in a description of the book’s impact:
, “Act of Creation has helped highlight the UN's role, promoting awareness of how the organization's foundations still influence its functioning and challenges today. This is particularly relevant as the UN faces scrutiny over its effectiveness and reforms in the 21st century.”
