In this thoughtful, balanced biography, former "Los Angeles Times" foreign and diplomatic correspondent Stanley Meisler traces Kofi Annan's unconventional rise from optimistic student to striving personnel and budget specialist in the United Nations bureaucracy to full-time manager of the world's crises. The book presents a unique portrait of this widely admired leader, with Annan's own view of events tempered and augmented by those of his allies and opponents, defenders and detractors.

"When the World Calls" is the first complete and balanced look at the Peace Corps's first fifty years. Revelatory and candid, journalist Stanley Meisler's engaging narrative exposes Washington infighting, presidential influence, and the Volunteers' unique struggles abroad. He deftly unpacks the complicated history with sharp analysis and memorable anecdotes, taking readers on a global trek starting with the historic first contingent of Volunteers to Ghana on August 30, 1961. In the years since, in spite of setbacks, the ethos of the Peace Corps has endured, largely due to the perseverance of the 200,000 Volunteers themselves, whose shared commitment to effect positive global change has been a constant in one of our most complex--and valued--institutions.

In this thoughtful, balanced biography, former "Los Angeles Times" foreign and diplomatic correspondent Stanley Meisler traces Kofi Annan's unconventional rise from optimistic student to striving personnel and budget specialist in the United Nations bureaucracy to full-time manager of the world's crises. The book presents a unique portrait of this widely admired leader, with Annan's own view of events tempered and augmented by those of his allies and opponents, defenders and detractors.