Great Britain: Statesman's Return

On Jan. 9, 1957, two months after he had called off his country's invasion of Suez, Sir Anthony Eden resigned as Prime Minister, leaving a nation divided at home, humiliated abroad, gravely weakened in its alliances. Sick and saddened. Eden declined the earldom that goes, by long tradition, to departing Prime Ministers. Unlike Sir Winston Churchill, who refused a dukedom rather than forgo his lifelong passion for the House of Commons. Eden felt that he was too weakened by a major abdominal ailment even to make a nominal showing in the House of Lords.

Eden's health has mended since, along...