For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma - through sanctions and tourist boycotts - only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship. But what do we really know about Burma and its history and its struggles? In his new book, "The River of Lost Footsteps", Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family's history. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in Burma to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world. The World Affairs Council was founded in 1947 out of the interest generated by the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. With over 10,000 members, they are the largest international affairs organization on the west coast."