Calm at the Center

On June 28, Jacqui Smith, 44, Britain's freshly appointed Home Secretary, and the first woman ever to hold the post, arrived at her new quarters to find three battered red ministerial boxes on her desk. Their contents — essential reading to help her master her complex new brief — kept her busy until late in the evening. Then she returned to her London home and went to bed — to be woken a few hours later by the news that there had been an attempted car-bomb attack in the capital. Less than 12 hours after she'd taken office, Britain...