Home | Hammarskjöld: a Life | Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Two Reviews: A Starting Point

Reviews of Hammarskjöld: A Life by Prof. Michael Ignatieff and Dr. Rowan Williams brilliantly exemplify the range of possible responses to the public life and private concerns of Dag Hammarskjöld. Prof. Ignatieff looks from the perspective of a political scientist and participant in Canadian politics who is not uncomfortable with Hammarskjöld's spirituality; he understands how to honor and include it although it is not his first concern. Dr. Williams, recently returned to university life from years of service as Archbishop of Canterbury, is an exceptionally insightful interpreter of spirituality whose experience in public life underlies his understanding of Hammarskjöld's integration of public service and private spirituality.

The New York Review of Books, 7 November 2013

In this thoroughly engaging review entitled "The Faith of a Hero," Michael Ignatieff (Harvard and the University of Toronto) explores Hammarskjöld's achievements and challenges at the UN and his searching faith. Published here with the kind permission of The New York Review of Books.

The Cambridge Humanities Review, Lent Term 2013

Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and recently retired Archbishop of Canterbury, writes with understanding born of experience akin to Dag Hammarskjöld's. "[Hammarskjöld] was there to serve the entire spectrum of nations in the name of a convergent human welfare whose definition no one group owned exclusively." The review is on pp. 2-3.

Books & Culture, September-October 2013

Josh Jeter, writing in the lively Christian journal Books & Culture, evokes "a sensitive man in a noisy role; a man who carried a great load but was able . . . to bear it lightly." Published here with the kind permission of the editors at www.booksandculture.com.

African Business, November 2013

Stephen Williams, writing in an outstanding African monthly, takes the occasion of reviewing Hammarskjöld: A Life to look at a dramatic episode in North African history: the Suez Crisis of 1956-57. It was the origin of UN peacekeeping forces, still at work today in many parts of the world.

The Nation, 9 September 2013

Andrew Gilmour, a senior official in the Office of the UN Secretary-General with a broad portfolio of responsibilities, reviews Hammarskjöld: A Life with unique insight into Hammarskjöld's permanent importance to the UN and the status today of challenges he faced years ago.

Huntington News (West Virginia) and elsewhere online, August 2013

Winslow Myers, a most thoughtful author in the field of peace studies, focuses on Hammarskjöld as an urgent example and inspiration for today's diplomats

The New York Journal of Books, 1 May 2013

Tad Crawford, publisher and novelist, engages in this review with the two dominant aspects of Dag Hammarskjöld, tireless peacemaker and man of spirit.

America, 12-19 August 2013

The Jesuit university professor Thomas Murphy, writing in an outstanding U.S. Catholic weekly, offers a wealth of insight drawing on his religious background.

Parabola Magazine, April 2013

James George, a Canadian diplomat now retired who knew Hammarskjöld personally in the UN years, sheds light "in many directions," to use a phrase often heard from Hammarskjöld.
Republished with the permission of Parabola Magazine.

Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm), 3 April 2013

A brilliantly insightful review by Mats Svegfors, a senior figure in Swedish newspapers and radio, not least in its assessment of Dag Hammarskjöld’s renewed reception in Sweden.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1-10 of 13 entries
1 2