Thatcher - Hardcover

Harris, Kenneth

3.76

25 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316348376 ISBN 13: 9780316348379

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 1988

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Based on interviews with Thatcher herself as well as friends, colleagues, and critics, this interpretive biography analyzes Margaret Thatcher's rise to power in England, the ascendancy she enjoys over her government, and her vision for the future

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From Library Journal:

If the measure of a political "revolution" is the quantity and quality of the writing it inspires, then Thatcher's revolution has indeed succeeded. In addition to the two very good books reviewed here, other excellent works include Joel Krieger's Reagan, Thatcher, & the Politics of Decline (Oxford, 1986); Dennis Kavanaugh's Thatcherism & British Politics: The End of Consensus? (Oxford, 1987); Peter Riddell's The Thatcher Government (Blackwell, 1985. 2d ed.); Andrew Gamble's The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Politics of Thatcherism (Duke, 1988). Thatcherism is the vanguard of a profound movement in Western politics and its impact is liable to be felt well into the next century. This is not an ordinary leader nor an ordinary administration. Jenkins takes as his canvas not simply the Iron Lady or her government, but the texture of contemporary British society. This is as full, vibrant, and moving a portrait as we are liable to have. Evenperhaps, especiallyfor those who are out of sympathy with Thatcherism, this is essential reading. Jenkins argues that "the future may not be hers but she has set its agenda," and that agenda is moral as much as political or economic. Jenkins's sympathetic rendering gives the sights, the sounds, the smell, and the passions of Thatcher's "conviction politics." Harris's work does not wholly match up, but it is no less worthwhile for what it covers. Harris traces well in this "interpretative biography"more like an extended sketchthe politics of Thatcher's rise to power and the outlines of her first term. Short on her second term, he does convey the political dynamics of a Tory party that ended up with more than it bargained for. These two volumes, plus those cited above, really do address the question, "Have we seen the future and does it work?" H. Steck, SUNY at Cortland
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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