New World Leaders

...Seven are leaders of new states in Asia—Ngo Diem of Vietnam, Magsaysay of the Philippines, Nehru of India, U Nu of Burma, Rahman of Malaya, Sena-nayake of Ceylon, and Sukarno of Indonesia...

...Leonard S. Kenworthy, who is professor of education at Brooklyn College, has long been concerned with the lack of conveniently accessible reading material on the non-Western peoples of Asia and Africa...

...The violent birth-pangs of the Congo, which are filling the headlines at the time this review is written, are illustrative of the rapid and perhaps overzealous haste with which some of the new African states are coming into their own...

...As one reads the fourteen biographies, he is made vividly aware of the staggering tasks confronting the new nations and the pressure of time in dealing with them: education, the training of new leaders, internal unity and strength, economic and social development...

...Three of the sketches deal with men of Africa—Bourguiba of Tunisia, King Mohammed V of Morocco, and Nkru-mah, the recently elected President of Ghana...

...Reviewed by Elton Atwater Against the rising crescendo of African nationalism, this book provides pertinent and useful information...

...Written in an extremely readable, interesting style, it presents the stories of fourteen men who have led their respective countries to independence since World War II, or are regarded as perhaps the most important leaders in their countries...

...As a teacher concerned with preparing our young people for the kind of world in which they will be living in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-first Centuries, he has devoted many years to collecting or writing readable stories of the peoples and cultures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America...

...Many readers will remember an earlier volume of his, Twelve Citizens of the World, which presented the biographies of a series of world-minded leaders who have contributed much to building the conditions for a world community of justice and peace...

...In all of this, the intensity of nationalist emotion is vividly portrayed...

...The result is a piece of writing which blends human interest with much pertinent background on the cultures, aspirations, and problems of the peoples...

...In preparing the present volume, Kenworthy in 1957-1958 traveled through Asia and Africa, interviewing almost all of the political leaders with whom he was concerned...

...At the time the book was completed, a little more than a year ago, it would have been difficult to believe that by mid-1960, seven new states in Africa would have attained full independence, with at least another two or three certain to become free in the latter part of the year...

...Teachers who are looking for suitable student reading material on the new nations of the world, as well as the general reader seeking meaning in today's headlines, will find this book well worth attention...

...Four come from the Middle East—Ben-Gurion of Israel, King Hussein of Jordan, Jinnah of Pakistan, and Nasser of Egypt...

...One is also impressed by the rapid rate of educational and economic advances since independence as compared with the rate of progress under even the most enlightened colonial administrations...

...While each of the leaders is a distinctive personality, certain common traits stand out in many cases: complete confidence in the "rightness" of their goals, a sense of historical and often philosophical perspective, ability to handle other strong personalities, courage and boldness tempered by humility, and a zealous dedication to their work...