Unity is an empowering force.
- Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. [attributed to Ryunosuke Satoro]
- Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. [Helen Keller]
- Unity is vision; it must have been part of the process of learning to see. [Henry Adams]
- When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion. [anonymous]
There is strength in numbers but more than in numbers, in unity or cohesion. When people pull together in common purpose, they reinforce and encourage each other. Each person may bring unique strengths that add to the common endeavor for more than if each person acted alone. When that happens, sometimes, the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.
“Unity is a cross-cultural human need . . .” It is grounded in our natural longing for connection. A unified community of support can stand up for people who would otherwise be marginalized.
Beyond unity’s personal psychological benefits, unity conveys power. Sometimes, especially when their commitment is great, a small number of people can overcome daunting obstacles. This may require purposeful organization, though sometimes strong unified movements can arise organically (this is not necessarily to the benefit of the community as a whole).
Trust, respect, and many other factors are essential to unity. To be an effective unified force, people must be united in thought, to a critical point, yet they may need to look past their differences, and sacrifice some of their individual or in-group autonomy for the greater good of the whole.
Real
True Narratives
Book narratives:
- Bogdan Dentich, End of the Cold War: European Unity, Socialism, and the Shift in Global Power (University of Minnesota Press, 1990).
- Margaret Power, Right-Wing Women in Chile: Feminine Power and the Struggle Against Allende, 1964–1973 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
- Philip Abrams and Andrew McCulloch, Communes, Sociology and Society (Cambridge University Press, 1976).
- Timothy Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond (Syracuse University Press, 1999).
- Carol Blum, Strength in Numbers: Population, Reproduction, and Power in Eighteenth-Century France (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).
- Jonathan Steinberg, Bismarck: A Life (Oxford University Press, 2011): a narrative account of a master statesman who united the 39 states in the German Confederation. Bismarck’s life is also a study in pragmatism.
- Jason K. Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa (PublicAffairs, 2011): an example of the antithesis of social unity.
- Simon Winchester, The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible (Harper, 2013): on “the influential figures who fostered American unity.”
- Jonathan W. Jordan, Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, and the Partnership That Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe (NAL Caliber, 2011): how Allied commanders collaborated to win World War II.
- David Lowenthal, Quest for the Unity of Knowledge (Routledge, 2019).
From the dark side:
- James Shapiro, Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future (Penguin Press, 2020): “His subject is us, the U.S., not Shakespeare plays. If you’re worried about the current state of the Republic, this is a book that will stoke your fears — while educating you on why you might justifiably be having them.”
- Geoerge Packer, Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2021): “His deep fear is that Americans have lost the 'art' of self-government.”
- Adam Tooze, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy (Viking, 2021): “. . . what if our collective will is so divided that we can’t decide which way to go? Or, more to the point, what if we can’t agree on how much to spend, what to spend it on, who should benefit and when to pay for it . . .”
- Isabel Kershner, The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for Its Inner Soul (Knopf, 2023): “delivers an in-depth look at the tribes that compete and clash within the Promised Land.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Geoffrey Glen Giauque, Grand Designs and Visions of Unity: The Atlantic Powers and the Reorganization of Western Europe, 1955-1963 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2002).
- Bonnie J. Taylor, ed., The Power of Unity: Overcoming Racial Divisions, Rebuilding America (Baha’i Publishing, 2019).
- R. Keith Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (Basic Books, 2007).
- Morten T. Hansen, Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results (Harvard Business School Press, 2009).
- Gilbert Waldbauer, Millions of Marches, Bunches of Beetles: How Bugs Find Strength in Numbers (Harvard University Press, 2000).
- Gilbert Waldbauer, Insights from Insects: What Bad Bugs Can Teach Us (Prometheus Press, 2005).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- Jane Yolen, Raising Yoder's Barn (Little Brown, 1998).
- Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring (Flash Point, 2010), "a book about collaboration."
- Colin Thubron, Night of Fire: A Novel (Harper/HarperCollins Publishers, 2017): “Colin Thubron’s ‘Night of Fire’ is literally about a house that burns down at night, killing all its inhabitants. . . . It starts over at every chapter with a new character, and yet the fates of the seven central characters are so intimately linked that the story feels cumulative. The resemblance of each chapter to the next — intense memories, followed by death — should feel repetitious, but it doesn’t.”
From the dark side, and stories of people not pulling together:
- Lionel Shriver, So Much for That: A Novel (Harper, 2010), a novel about the failure of the health care system in the United States.
- Ken Kalfus, 2 a.m. in Little America: A Novel (Milkweed, 2022): “. . . the next American civil war has already taken place. The people of the United States have become the world’s newest and biggest cohort of refugees, following Syrians and Salvadorans and many others into the cross-border and transoceanic routes of mass migration and diaspora.”
Poetry
Whoever degrades another degrades me, / And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.
Through me the afflatus surging and surging, through me the current and index.
I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy, / By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
Through me many long dumb voices, / Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves, / Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs, / Voices of cycles of preparation and accretion, / And of the threads that connect the stars, and of wombs and of the father-stuff, / And of the rights of them the others are down upon, / Of the deform'd, trivial, flat, foolish, despised, / Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.
Through me forbidden voices, / Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veil'd and I remove the veil, / Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigur'd.
[Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1891-92), Book III: Song of Myself, 24.]
We will rise from the golden hills of the West.
We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.
[from Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”]
Other poems:
- Woody Guthrie, “All Work Together”
From the dark side:
- Roger McGough, “Cake”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Playing for Change “is a movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. In 2005, co-founders Mark Johnson and Whitney Kroenke created the concept of the Songs Around The World by uniting together musicians from many different countries and cultures to perform on the same track.” The group is devoted, as stated on its website, to “Inspir(ing) and Connect(ing) the World Through Music”. Here is a link to its playlists, some videos, and some live performances.
Zap Mama is an all-female a cappella quintet founded by Zaire native Marie Daulne. “Born in the former Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) to a Belgian father and a Zairian mother, Marie Daulne fled the country at the age of three when war broke out. After taking shelter with a tribe of Pygmies, her family eventually made their way to Brussels. . . While children from her school were practicing in front of a piano, Marie’s mother was introducing her to the sounds of the rainforest, teaching her the unearthly singing of the Central African Pygmies. But Marie preferred to listen to Stevie Wonder and early hip-hop from the United States . . .” “Zap Mama sings polyphonic and afro-pop music, a harmonic music with a mixture of infused African vocal techniques, urban, hip hop with emphasis on voice.” “The original group, like Daulne, displayed a mixed heritage. Daulne told Birnbaum, 'We have a Zairean memory and a European memory, and together we find the same vibration, because we have European and Zairean music inside.' She explained further her belief that that kind of hybrid could transcend differences by recognizing and playing with them: 'We have French, English, Spanish, Arabic, Swahili, Zulu, Lingala, and Baboudou. And we invent a language--onomatopoeia. It's the language of humans, because every human makes the same sounds.'” Here are links to their releases, their playlists, and some videos.
Femi Kuti is an advocate of “One People One World”, the title of his tenth album (2018) (51’). “Like his father, Femi is committed to social justice and human rights.” Here are links to his releases, and some videos.
Franz Joseph Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 76 (“Erdody” quartets, 1796-97) (approx. 70’) “Each of the six quartets displays this fine balance between consolidation of the tradition Haydn already had created and his irrepressible drive toward yet further innovation, and boasts sufficient riches to warrant individual consideration.” Top recorded performances of the entire opus are by Tátrai Quartet in 1964, Buchberger Quartet, Tokyo Quartet in 1981, The Lindsays in 1999 (No. 1, 2 and 3), and Quatuor Mosaïques in 2000.
- Quartet No. 60 in G major, Op 76, No. 1, FHE No. 40, Hoboken No. III:75 (approx. 20-24’)
- Quartet No. 61 in D minor (“Quinten”, “Fifths”, “The Donkey”), Op. 76, No. 2, FHE No. 41, Hoboken No. III:76 (approx. 20-24’)
- Quartet No. 62 in C major (“Emperor” or “Kaiser”), Op. 76, No. 3, FHE No. 42, Hoboken No. III:77 (approx. 21-23’)
- Quartet No. 63 in B flat major (“Sunrise”), Op. 76, No. 4, FHE No. 49, Hoboken NO. III:78 (approx. 22-25’)
- Quartet No. 64 in D major (“Largo”), Op. 76, No. 5, FHE No. 50, Hoboken No. III:79 (approx. 17-25’)
- Quartet No. 65 in E flat major, Op. 76, No. 6, FHE No. 51, Hoboken No. III:80 (approx. 22-24’)
Other works:
- Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op 34 (1864) (approx. 42-43’), evidences the same seriousness of intent and unity of purpose as in his string quartets. The addition of an extra voice, the piano, adds a layer of complexity that brings to mind, more fully than in the quartets, the value of unity.
- Franz Schubert, String Quintet, in C Major, D. 956, Op. posth. 163 (1828) (approx. 47-55’) “is on an epic scale lasting close to an hour by the clock and something more like eternity by the human sense of aesthetic, experiential time.”
- Antonín Dvořák, String Quintet No. 3 in E flat Major, Op. 97, B 180, "American" (1893) (approx. 34-35’): “The quintet . . . reflects the environment in which it originated: in addition to the attributes which are typical for Dvorak’s American oeuvre in general – the pentatonic scale, syncopated rhythms, minor seventh in a minor key – we will hear shades of Native American folklore which lend this piece its unique colour.”
- Friedrich Gernsheim, Piano Quintet No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 35 (1876) (approx. 34’)
- Gernsheim, Piano Quintet No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 63 (1896) (approx. 30-31’)
- Arthur Foote, Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 38 (1897) (approx. 27’): “. . . Foote shows a keen ability to write for a chamber ensemble, presenting a work that is rather compact but full of treasures to enjoy.”
- Benjamin Frankel, Symphony No. 3, Op. 40 (1964) (approx. 19’): in this brief symphony, the composer brings together and resolves several musical ideas.
- Ernst von Dohnányi, Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1 (1895) (approx. 28-29’) “is a four-movement work in the great Romantic tradition, showing a mastery of counterpoint and form that far surpasses what one would expect from a student work.”
- César Franck, Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 14, CFF 121, FWV 7 (1879) (approx. 34-39’) “was composed in the winter of 1878-1879, a time during which some biographers suggest he was infatuated with one of his students. An ultra-expressive work – Nadia Boulanger said it contains more ppp and fff markings than any other chamber piece – it may have been inspired by this passion . . .”
- Raga Bibhas (Vibhas) is an early morning raga. “The atmosphere created by this raga is serious . . .” Performances by Kishori Amonkar, Mallikarjun Mansur, and Faiyaz Khan.
- Raga Gunakri, a Hindustani classical raag for early morning, often portrayed as a young woman in love who is arranging flowers or twigs in a vase – this is meant to symbolize two lovers. Performances are by Kishori Amonkar, Sharad Sathe and Shivkumar Sharma).
- Théodore Dubois, Piano Quintet in F Major (1905) (approx. 28-29’)
- Dubois, Piano Quartet in A Minor (1907) (approx. 32’)
Albums:
- Liquid Mind IV, “Unity” album (2000) (58’)
- String Thing, “Beauty of the Essential Detail” (2020) (68’): “The nine compositions are (Roger) Hanschel originals and played mostly in unison, suggesting a strict discipline.” (Robert Rusch, Cadence magazine annual edition 2020.)
- Tubby Hayes, “Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions, 1969” (2019) (102’)
- Gebhard Ullmann, Hans Lüdermann, Oliver Potratz & Eric Schaefer, “Mikropuls” (2019) (45’): musicians with diverse perspectives and ideas uniting around one idea at a time
- Jakob Bro Nonet, “White Rainbow” (2008) (51’), because in a rainbow all the colors are together.
- Dom Minasi Quartet, “Eight Hands, One Mind” (2022) (33’)
- Azuei, “Artybonito” (2021) (56’) is an album devoted to unity in a divided Hispaniola.
- Artemis, “In Real Time” (2023) (50’): “The music showcases a unified ensemble sound and highlights each member’s unique voice and creativity. The ensemble’s chemistry has undoubtedly grown since their first album, as they continue to evoke the spirit of the Greek goddess Artemis as the ensemble exhibits courage, untamed nature, and purity in their music.”
- Frank Woeste, Vincent Courtois & Ryan Keberle, “Harmonic Alchemy” (2022) (57’)
- Lionel Loueke & Dave Holland, “United, Vol. 1” (2024) (65’): “In a world where connection often feels elusive, jazz legends Lionel Loueke and Dave Holland offer a remedy with their upcoming album, United. This highly anticipated release transcends mere collaboration; it embodies a soulful conversation between two masters from distinct backgrounds, merging their unique voices into something beautifully transcendent.”
From the dark side:
- Richard Wilson, Music for Violin and Cello (1969) (76’) is full of conflict and tension.
- Claudio Santoro, Cello Concerto (1961) (approx. 32’), “. . . a sombre, tense, strongly expressive piece . . .” was fueled by Santoro’s experience in East Berlin.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Playing for Change, “Ripple” (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert (composer), Bundeslied (Comrade’s Song), D. 258 (1815) (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Max Ernst, Lone Tree and United Trees (1940)
