Union Now is a book by journalist Clarence Streit calling for a federal union of fifteen of the world's major democracies. The first edition of the book was published in 1939. The book attracted public attention to world federalist and Atlanticist ideas and helped lay the groundwork for the efforts of Streit's organization Federal Union, Inc. (which later became the Association to Unite the Democracies).
Streit was prescient. His outlook is truly ahead of the times, it being a universal outlook. He preaches & pushes for unity during a unique time. Readers know today the imminent WW2 but Streit intuited it at the close of the 1930s. Much of what we learned from the decades since then are foretold in this wonderful book.
It is well-written, not entirely dense, but certainly not a short book. Some parts contain statistics which might appeal while other parts utterly sparkle with wisdom & sagacity. There are an abundance of quotes that preface &/or conclude chapters. For the avid & erudite, some of them are worth memorizing. I recall David Hume, Shakespeare, The Holy Quran, The Holy Bible, (Isaiah), Lincoln, Hitler, Chamberlain, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (on his hatred of war), and some pearls at the end of the book especially from Walt Whitman.
Streit writes as a statesman on a global scale. The grand spirit of history is within his pen. Yet relevant is he to the times, and those are, to be certain, the aftermath of the League of Nations, the first intergovernmental organization. The opening & middle of the book considerably lament its missteps but does so with respect to the times & conditions, the realities & improbabilities, and, indirectly, the characters, those heads of state, those in position of power & authority. Readers are brought to witness the evasiveness of an American nation in the larger arena. From beginning to about 3/4ths of the way through there is an effulgence on the meanings of nation and individual. He argues that a group of nations neglects to address really the concerns & interests of the people, that is, the person. A league he likens to a thing that is necessary & formative to a union, a precursor, and moreover, a thing subordinate to a union. He has many remarkable metaphors & similes.