Dag Hammarskjold: Custodian of the Brushfire Peace

by Joseph P. Lash

Used, Good condition, Immediate shipping!!!

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Joseph Paul Lash (1909–1987) was secretary and confidant to Eleanor Roosevelt and the author of numerous acclaimed books.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dag Hammarskjold was the secretary-general of the UN from 1953 until his death in a plane crash in 1961. This edition of this book that I read was written in 1961, and his death is only mentioned briefly in the epilogue. I got the impression that the bulk of the book was written before his death. There was some interesting chapters about his upbringing and background and some fascinating discussion about what the role of the UN and secretary general should be. Fascinating looking back 60 years and considering what the UN has or hasn't become in light of that. The weakness of this book, like a number of bios I've read, is that it gives much ink to events that happened more recently, going into great detail and information that goes beyond the subject of the biography. And since I was reading this book 60 years later, the chapters on the UN mission to the Congo and its importance were lost on me. Still, an interesting look into the diplomatic environment of the 1950s and the role of a UN diplomat in walking the fine line between competing international interests.

[Mark S · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is about 1/3 biography of Hammerskjold and 2/3 a diplomatic history of the early days of the UN, the Suez Crisis, and the Congo crisis. You can pick and choose chapters if you’d like without missing too much, but I recommend reading all the biographical chapters, which are readily identifiable by the chapter titles.

Hammerskjold was clearly a remarkable man. Some remarkable people seem ordinary and attainable, while others seem to be heads above the rest of us, especially because of the sacrifices and life choices they make to be so. I don’t think I could ever live a life as singly devoted to work as Hammerskjold, but I want to imitate his commitment to persistent hope paired with realistic vision in peacemaking.