There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters - Softcover

Berlinski, Claire

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465020275 ISBN 13: 9780465020270

Publisher: Basic Books, 2010

Synopsis

Great Britain in the 1970s appeared to a nation be in terminal decline? ungovernable and rapidly headed for global economic irrelevance. Three decades later, it is one of the richest and most influential countries in Europe and Margaret Thatcher deserves all the credit.

As journalist and conservative pundit Claire Berlinski shows, Thatcher's transformation of Britain was no simple task. Her jarring economic reforms often came at a high human cost as inefficient subsidies, welfare programs, and industries were abandoned entirely. While Thatcher's legacy has been the subject of passionate debate, Berlinski argues that we should be on her side. Socialism is on the rise and only countries willing to abide by Thatcher's philosophy will prevail.

?There Is No Alternative” provides a valuable account of Margaret Thatcher's visionary triumphs in the fight for free enterprise.

About this title

About the Author

Claire Berlinski holds a doctorate in international relations from Balliol College at Oxford University. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Sun, National Review, and many others. She lives in Istanbul.

Review

"American Conservative" .,."[E]ntertaining... Berlinski often expresses herself with verve...Berlinski's account of the case for free markets is--as a primer for the non-economist--lucid and lively... She's colorful--thanks in part to some enjoyable inside track from Charles Powell--about Thatcher's relationships with Gorbachev and Reagan." "World Affairs" "Berlinski has crawled through the archives and interviewed many of the principals of the Thatcher era, and part of the story she tells is about the crawling and the interviewing. She begins with an intuition that Thatcher was a figure of lasting worldwide importance and, more narrowly, one who clearly saw the challenges of her day. She ends with conclusions to the same effect. She makes her journey from hunch to sober appraisal ours as well, leading us back through a fresh look at the issues and personalities as she asks the pertinent and the impertinent questions and challenges the assumptions of the players and their own conclusions about what happened and why." "Washington Times" "Fresh, original and extremely well-written" "National Review" "Brisk, engrossing, insightful, often charming... a splendid book." "Wall Street Journal" "A pleasure to read... As an interviewer, Ms. Berlinski is subtle and dogged." "Globe and Mail" "Claire Berlinski has written a much better book about her than one of those door-stop biographies that are now the destiny of almost every public figure.... The book is all the better for being a work of synthesis as well as analysis. Without being hagiography, it is about as powerful a defence of Thatcher's record as is likely ever to be written." "Human Events" "[an] excellent look back at Margaret Thatcher's significance" "The Scotsman" "Berlinski shows commitment and energy as an author... Her encounters with Neil Kinnock are tactical masterpieces, where she draws the Welsh windbag out and then deflates his woolly thinking with as much cool, perhaps cruel, precision as Thatcher herself did." Peter Schweizer, author of "Reagan's War" "Finally the Iron Lady gets her due. Claire Berlinski brilliantly lays out how Margaret Thatcher's strength and conviction changed the world. Without a Prime Minister Thatcher there might not have been a President Ronald Reagan. And Berlinski reminds us how the whole world would benefit from a new Thatcher today." General Brent Scowcroft, author of "America and the World" "Claire Berlinski's insight into Margaret Thatcher's character makes this book fascinating, and her intellectual seriousness and rigor make it compelling. It is a perfect marriage of author and subject: Berlinski's Thatcher is painfully real and human, yet simultaneously larger-than-life." Scoffery.com "Claire Berlinski has written one of the finest biographies of 2008. Superbly written. "There Is No Alternative" should be read by anyone wanting to understand geo-economics and party politics. A masterpiece."

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0465020275
• ISBN 13: 9780465020270
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400