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.
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.
