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Margaret Thatcher's Memoirs #2
The Downing Street Years
This first volume of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs encompasses the whole of her time as Prime Minister - the formation of her goals in the early 1980s, the Falklands, the General Election victories of 1983 and 1987 and, eventually, the circumstances of her fall from political power. She also gives frank accounts of her dealings with foreign statesmen and her own ministers.
914 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Margaret Thatcher
83 books295 followersBritish politician Baroness Margaret Hilda Thatcher from 1979 served; measures against inflation, a brief war in the Falkland Islands in 1982, and the passage of a poll tax marked her prime administration to 1990.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts) of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first and to date only woman to hold either post.
She went to read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford. She was selected as Conservative candidate for Finchley in 1958 and took her seat in the House of Commons in the following year of 1959. Upon the election of Edward Heath in 1970, people appointed Thatcher as secretary of state for education and science. In 1974, she backed Sir Keith Joseph for the Conservative party leader, but he fell short and afterward dropped out the race. Thatcher entered and led the Conservative party in 1975. She defiantly opposed the Soviet Union, and her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "iron lady." As the Conservative party maintained leads, Thatcher went in the general election of 1979.
The longest tenure of Thatcher the longest since that of Lord Salisbury and was the longest continuous period in office since the tenure of Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. This first woman led a major party in the United Kingdom and held any of the four great offices of state. After her resignation, she was ennobled as Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. During her tenure, she needed sleep of just four hours in a night.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts) of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first and to date only woman to hold either post.
She went to read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford. She was selected as Conservative candidate for Finchley in 1958 and took her seat in the House of Commons in the following year of 1959. Upon the election of Edward Heath in 1970, people appointed Thatcher as secretary of state for education and science. In 1974, she backed Sir Keith Joseph for the Conservative party leader, but he fell short and afterward dropped out the race. Thatcher entered and led the Conservative party in 1975. She defiantly opposed the Soviet Union, and her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "iron lady." As the Conservative party maintained leads, Thatcher went in the general election of 1979.
The longest tenure of Thatcher the longest since that of Lord Salisbury and was the longest continuous period in office since the tenure of Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. This first woman led a major party in the United Kingdom and held any of the four great offices of state. After her resignation, she was ennobled as Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. During her tenure, she needed sleep of just four hours in a night.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
August 14, 2013
Margaret Thatcher was a woman who rescued her nation from it's economic woes and inspired a whole generation to rise above the challenges they faced. Her courage, determination, and passion may never be seen again. In this book, she focuses on the tasks she performed while in office and explains the difficult decisions she made. Unlike Winston Churchill who valued the books he wrote just as much as his accomplishments, Thatcher didn't want her decisions recorded. It took pressure to persuade her to write the story.
What I notice most profoundly is the passion she writes with trying at all costs to justify every action she made. She's a very practical woman with very little room to criticize herself. Overall, I enjoyed what I read.
What I notice most profoundly is the passion she writes with trying at all costs to justify every action she made. She's a very practical woman with very little room to criticize herself. Overall, I enjoyed what I read.
September 18, 2014
I listened to this on tape and I also plan on reading the hard cover. I got the audio version from the library but bought both parts of her biographies.
I am totally fascinated with Margaret Thatcher. I've read several books on her and can't seem to get enough. She is extremely intelligent, very frank, confident, principled and was the right person for Great Britain while the U.S. had Ronald Reagan. Its amazing how things were orchestrated during their time in power. God definitely had a plan.
I am totally fascinated with Margaret Thatcher. I've read several books on her and can't seem to get enough. She is extremely intelligent, very frank, confident, principled and was the right person for Great Britain while the U.S. had Ronald Reagan. Its amazing how things were orchestrated during their time in power. God definitely had a plan.
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September 16, 2019The Downing Street Years.
Published 1993.
The book only cost one dollar. A big hardback in near-new condition.
On reaching chapter three, 'Into the Whirlwind', page 60, I decided to move this tome to the Read list. To get through this book I'll read it in sections and when in a receptive mood. I'll jump ahead to chapters that are of more interest to me.
Twenty-eight chapters including 'Over the Shop', 'The West and the Rest', (hmmm), 'The Falklands War: Follow the Fleet', 'Disarming the Left', 'Mr Scargill's Insurrection', 'Keeps Raining all the Time', 'Putting the World to Rights', 'To Cut and to Please', 'The World Turned Right Side Up', 'No Time to Go Wobbly', and 'Men in Lifeboats'.
I briefly dipped into this at various places of interest and looked at 'The World Turned Right Side Up': visit to Washington in July 1987, at a time when MT's political fortunes were riding high and President Reagan was reeling under the continuing 'Irangate' revelations.
This memoir should be interesting as long as I can keep the Iron Lady's political predisposition in perspective.
I'll get back with a summary of the Introduction and the first two chapters. There are some observations to take issue with.
I will add more to this revamble as events evoke memories of that era in 20th Century history.
One question is worth asking.
Both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan reached a fine old age, 87 and 93 respectively. After a productive life they both ended their final years and died from Alzheimer's disease.
They were both in Office at the same time, presiding over two powerful economies.
What was the ratio divide between medical science and defence budgets? I'd love to know the ratio between expenditure on defence and expenditure on medical research while the two leaders were in power? Are you with me?
Consider that with a Western demographic of an increasingly healthier aging population of greater longevity.
Published 1993.
The book only cost one dollar. A big hardback in near-new condition.
On reaching chapter three, 'Into the Whirlwind', page 60, I decided to move this tome to the Read list. To get through this book I'll read it in sections and when in a receptive mood. I'll jump ahead to chapters that are of more interest to me.
Twenty-eight chapters including 'Over the Shop', 'The West and the Rest', (hmmm), 'The Falklands War: Follow the Fleet', 'Disarming the Left', 'Mr Scargill's Insurrection', 'Keeps Raining all the Time', 'Putting the World to Rights', 'To Cut and to Please', 'The World Turned Right Side Up', 'No Time to Go Wobbly', and 'Men in Lifeboats'.
I briefly dipped into this at various places of interest and looked at 'The World Turned Right Side Up': visit to Washington in July 1987, at a time when MT's political fortunes were riding high and President Reagan was reeling under the continuing 'Irangate' revelations.
This memoir should be interesting as long as I can keep the Iron Lady's political predisposition in perspective.
I'll get back with a summary of the Introduction and the first two chapters. There are some observations to take issue with.
I will add more to this revamble as events evoke memories of that era in 20th Century history.
One question is worth asking.
Both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan reached a fine old age, 87 and 93 respectively. After a productive life they both ended their final years and died from Alzheimer's disease.
They were both in Office at the same time, presiding over two powerful economies.
What was the ratio divide between medical science and defence budgets? I'd love to know the ratio between expenditure on defence and expenditure on medical research while the two leaders were in power? Are you with me?
Consider that with a Western demographic of an increasingly healthier aging population of greater longevity.
October 29, 2022
That was epic-not the book but the fact that I struggled to read the 914 pages in over 3 months. While parts were interesting as she denigrates US President Carter (page 68-69) for his lack on economics sense while praising to high heaven US President Reagan (page 324-325) policy of driving USSR to break up with beating USSR in the arms race. The fact that she only won by one vote in Parliament to become Prime Minister and survived a bombing was also highly entertaining.
But the balance of the book was her dislocating her arm while patting herself on the back for solving all the world's problems. Her passion to have the European Union created failed now with the Brexit doctrine.
Should also be noted that Boris Johnson and Truss should have read this before their failed Prime Ministry.
But the balance of the book was her dislocating her arm while patting herself on the back for solving all the world's problems. Her passion to have the European Union created failed now with the Brexit doctrine.
Should also be noted that Boris Johnson and Truss should have read this before their failed Prime Ministry.
February 9, 2008
I started reading this book after the Tories were finally booted from power in 1997. I read it to consign the memory of her and her party to history and to remind myself how bad things were. [Sadly the labour Government now appear to be little more than replicants of the Tories... and equally as corrupt.]
What a self-righteous old bag.... please don't state that she did a lot of good for the country as she, and her cronies, have been responsible for the majority of avarice and greed that exists in our country today.
I hope that when she looks in the mirror she feels shame...I certainly hope that when she goes to bed at night that she is haunted and tormented by the wicked way in which she asset-stripped our nation and destroyed communities.
In 1979 when she became PM there was still an element of repsect in authority... no-one had much and there was a sense of community... In a few years the miserable old bitch destroyed everything.
I bet she still chuckles to herself about the way we fought in the Falklands so that she could get re-elected.
i bet she has happy memories of the Battle of Orgreave and the destruction of our mining industry.
Oh... and how amusing it must be to have stabbed the Union of Democratic Mineworkers in the back... they were scabs and deserved all they got....
Maggie... rot in hell..
What a self-righteous old bag.... please don't state that she did a lot of good for the country as she, and her cronies, have been responsible for the majority of avarice and greed that exists in our country today.
I hope that when she looks in the mirror she feels shame...I certainly hope that when she goes to bed at night that she is haunted and tormented by the wicked way in which she asset-stripped our nation and destroyed communities.
In 1979 when she became PM there was still an element of repsect in authority... no-one had much and there was a sense of community... In a few years the miserable old bitch destroyed everything.
I bet she still chuckles to herself about the way we fought in the Falklands so that she could get re-elected.
i bet she has happy memories of the Battle of Orgreave and the destruction of our mining industry.
Oh... and how amusing it must be to have stabbed the Union of Democratic Mineworkers in the back... they were scabs and deserved all they got....
Maggie... rot in hell..
May 9, 2011
Like all memoirs, especially political ones, this is mostly self-serving. If you admire Margaret Thatcher, and I do, and think she was correct, and I do, then you'll find the book engaging, enlightening, sometimes entertaining, and, in parts, oddly endearing. Any "regrets" alluded to in the upcoming "Iron Lady" film are strictly fictional. Thus, any "I was wrong" statements usually apply to her errors in judgment regarding other people's advice or motives. What is remarkable about this extensive overview of domestic, European, and foreign affairs is the candid assessments she lays down. She gives opinions on other politicians/ leaders without any diplomatic varnish at all, but she is also willing to acknowledge admirable traits, even of long-standing adversaries. Also, parts of the book, especially in dealing with economic reforms, effectively explain aspects of her beliefs that have been twisted or misunderstood -- she's no fan of speculators, for instance. Thatcherism was/ is not a "get rich quick" scheme -- there are some solid moral and economic principles that businessmen, bankers, and brokers choose to ignore.
Like it or not, Thatcher's a giant of post-war politics and a true world-figure. She changed the landscape of British politics and the economy, she was crucial to the defeat of communism in Europe, and she saved the UK from the Euro (and hopefully from rule from Brussels). Current leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have to deal with an environment that she helped create, for better or worse. Few of them have the dedication to convictions, leadership qualities, or shear resolve to achieve her stature.
Like it or not, Thatcher's a giant of post-war politics and a true world-figure. She changed the landscape of British politics and the economy, she was crucial to the defeat of communism in Europe, and she saved the UK from the Euro (and hopefully from rule from Brussels). Current leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have to deal with an environment that she helped create, for better or worse. Few of them have the dedication to convictions, leadership qualities, or shear resolve to achieve her stature.
October 5, 2011
This is a very well written, inspiring biography. The Lady Thatcher did her very best to bring the United Kingdom back from the ruin that socialism and the labor unions had made of it. She nearly succeeded. You will find in this book the brief triumph of conservative thought. By the end of her eleven and a half years as Prime Minister, she had helped her people and the people of the world to gain more freedom, more self-reliance and better lives for themselves and their neighbors. She was, and is, an uncompromising advocate of the fact that the government that governs best is one that governs least.
I am in awe of her leadership and her integrity. It was a privilege to read this book and get to know her better. Thank you, Lady Thatcher, for your service to humanity.
I am in awe of her leadership and her integrity. It was a privilege to read this book and get to know her better. Thank you, Lady Thatcher, for your service to humanity.
December 17, 2013
Excruciatingly detailed. I got about 100 pages in and she was still discussing her first weekend in power. Next.
September 17, 2012
A fascinating insight into tough decisions upheld by an even tougher leader. It's a shame that she doesn't talk about her children but good to hear her admiration and respect for her husband Dennis. A remarkable woman who had the courage of her convictions, the integrity to carry the weight of her decisions and the confidence to stand by what she believed even when it was sometimes alone. Her principles of thrift and 'waste not want not' are basic and universal truths for those who believe in sound economics and not the 'lend to have it now' philosophy. Her judgement was incredibly accurate taking into consideration the current Euro rescue plan. It was right to close businesses that were unprofitable as per the rapidly falling commodity prices of today. Perhaps she was more foresighted than even she knew. One cannot deny, when one soberly assesses, without all the misconceptions and clouding of emotion, that her logic and convictions drove Britain out of decline and onto a path of economic and social prosperity. That she is still the only British Prime Minister to hold office for 11 1/2 years is testament that the majority of the British people thought so too. It'll be a long time before we see another like her. And before anyone else condemns her to hell it is highly likely she'll actually make it to heaven, having confessed Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour, and be greeted with 'well done my good and faithful servant'.
July 20, 2016
Despite taking almost 3 years to finish this tome (girl needed an editor), it wasn't half bad. Entire boring as hell chapters could have been cut, but Thatcher's prose is unsurprisingly rich and humorous for a tough-as-shit orator who convinced world leaders to refer to her as "The Iron Lady." It was worth a read, if only to marvel at how thoroughly Thatcher was convinced at the righteousness of her own policies. While the West still recovers from the impacts of Thatcherism and Reaganomics 30 years later, she as much as literally calls herself the saviour of the world.
Of particular amusement to me as an educator was the way she scoffs alarmingly at "extreme" movements in education which are now accepted as basic tenets of the institution.
She was a terrifying bastion of neoliberal destruction, but one I can't help have a little more respect for simply for the way she unapologetically carved out space in a club of mostly-male world leaders. Just don't expect any self-reflection.
Of particular amusement to me as an educator was the way she scoffs alarmingly at "extreme" movements in education which are now accepted as basic tenets of the institution.
She was a terrifying bastion of neoliberal destruction, but one I can't help have a little more respect for simply for the way she unapologetically carved out space in a club of mostly-male world leaders. Just don't expect any self-reflection.
April 23, 2012
Terribly boring. It is rare that I leave any book unfinished but this was just unbearable. If you are very into this topic watch "the downing years" documentary by the BBC which includes commentaries from some of the characters involved (Thatcher herself and some others including Gorbachev).
August 25, 2021
Είναι ίσως η πιο αμφιλεγόμενη αρχηγός κράτους στην Δύση και δεν θέλω να κρυφτώ: ανήκω στους οπαδούς της, αν και δεν συμφωνώ με όλες τις πολιτικές της. Όλοι μας, όμως, μπορούμε να συμφωνήσουμε ότι η Margaret Thatcher ήταν μία γνήσια ιδεολόγος και πατριώτισσα πολιτικός, φανατική υπέρμαχος της αντιπαράθεσης και του διαλόγου. Θεωρούσε ότι η συναίνεση δεν έχει χώρο στη δημοκρατία, γιατί στερεί από τους ψηφοφόρους την επιλογή του διαφορετικού. Αν και συντηρητική, ήταν μία επαναστάτρια, άφησε μία χώρα εντελώς διαφορετική από αυτήν που παρέλαβε. Το αν ήταν καλύτερη ή χειρότερη ανήκει στην κρίση του καθενός. Σε αυτήν την αυτοβιογραφία, όπως και στην ταινία "The Iron Lady" (2011, Meryl Streep), μου άρεσε η υφέρπουσα προσωπική προσέγγιση: ο άνθρωπος πίσω από το αξίωμα. Η Margaret Thatcher ήταν η πρώτη γυναίκα, σύζυγος και μητέρα, που κατάφερε να αναλιχθεί στο ανώτατο αξίωμα σε μία εποχή, που η πολιτική ήταν ανδρική υπόθεση. Βίωσε έντονα την αμφιβήτηση και πάλεψε με πάθος για τις ιδέες της. Η Margaret Thatcher αναδείχθηκε, επικράτησε και έπεσε με τον ίδιο τρόπο: μόνη. Δεν άφησε διαδόχους και ίσως και να μην χρειαζόταν. Έδιωξε τους δράκους and they lived happily ever after.
April 20, 2015
All I can say is "I can't believe I took so long to read this!" I have owned this book for 20 years, and for 20 years it has sat on my shelf collecting dust. I have always been a fan of Margaret Thatcher, but somehow felt I was not well versed enough in British politics to appreciate Lady Thatcher's memoirs of her time as Prime Minister.
In some ways, it is very interesting to read this book now. From the outset, the Britain she faced when taking office was very much like America today:
"...the British Government soon jammed a finger in every pie. It levied high rates of tax on work, enterprise, consumption and wealth transfer. it planned development at every level - urban, rural, industrial and scientific. It managed the economy, macro-economically by Keynesian methods of fiscal manipulation, micro-economically by granting regional and industrial subsidies on a variety of criteria."
"It made available various forms of welfare for a wide range of contingencies - poverty, unemployment, large families, old age, misfortune, ill-health, family quarrels - generally on a universal basis."
"Labour moved Britain towards statism; the Tories stood pat; and the next Labour Government moved the country a little further left. The Tories were the corset of socialism; they never removed it."
Mrs. Thatcher described the economic problems Britain faced as having evolved from the ideal of a "democratic socialist society" that Labour espoused.
"No theory of government was ever given a fairer test or a more prolonged experiment in a democratic society than democratic socialism received in Britain. Yet it was a miserable failure in every respect."
Fortunately for Prime Minister Thatcher, Britain's system of government meant that as long as she convinced her Tory party members to back her, she had a free hand reversing the course set by Labour. She understood that her primary goals were to set the British economy on a better footing through deregulation, privatization, debt reduction, income tax reduction, and sound fiscal policy. Another large component of her administration was to raise Britain up to, once again, a high ranking power in the world. When she left office she had accomplished these goals.
I was fascinated with her chapters on improving Britain's economy, dealings with the European Council and the way she took on the trade unions. The Falkland War chapters were also enlightening. I have studied much about the collapse of the Soviet Union and it's relations with the United States, so Thatcher's discussion of these events and the repercussions to Europe were particularly interesting.
One the things that kept me from reading this book for so long, was my fear that I was not familiar enough with British politics or government to fully appreciate this memoir. In some instances that was true. Lady Thatcher used so many acronyms that were lost on me. I had to look up many, and oftentimes, even when I understood what they now meant, the people and departments were still too foreign for me to fully comprehend. That said, those times were the minority.
Margaret Thatcher had a keen insight about the way the world works. Her writing is powerful - her speechwriters always claimed that they never wrote her speeches, but that she wrote them and they "helped." There were many times I wanted to yell "Yes!" to an eloquent comment she made, or picked up the phone to call someone to further discuss something she had said in the book. There's an old game people play where you are asked if you could choose one person, living or dead, to sit down to dinner with, who would it be? I can most definitely say it would be Margaret Thatcher. 4 1/2 stars.
In some ways, it is very interesting to read this book now. From the outset, the Britain she faced when taking office was very much like America today:
"...the British Government soon jammed a finger in every pie. It levied high rates of tax on work, enterprise, consumption and wealth transfer. it planned development at every level - urban, rural, industrial and scientific. It managed the economy, macro-economically by Keynesian methods of fiscal manipulation, micro-economically by granting regional and industrial subsidies on a variety of criteria."
"It made available various forms of welfare for a wide range of contingencies - poverty, unemployment, large families, old age, misfortune, ill-health, family quarrels - generally on a universal basis."
"Labour moved Britain towards statism; the Tories stood pat; and the next Labour Government moved the country a little further left. The Tories were the corset of socialism; they never removed it."
Mrs. Thatcher described the economic problems Britain faced as having evolved from the ideal of a "democratic socialist society" that Labour espoused.
"No theory of government was ever given a fairer test or a more prolonged experiment in a democratic society than democratic socialism received in Britain. Yet it was a miserable failure in every respect."
Fortunately for Prime Minister Thatcher, Britain's system of government meant that as long as she convinced her Tory party members to back her, she had a free hand reversing the course set by Labour. She understood that her primary goals were to set the British economy on a better footing through deregulation, privatization, debt reduction, income tax reduction, and sound fiscal policy. Another large component of her administration was to raise Britain up to, once again, a high ranking power in the world. When she left office she had accomplished these goals.
I was fascinated with her chapters on improving Britain's economy, dealings with the European Council and the way she took on the trade unions. The Falkland War chapters were also enlightening. I have studied much about the collapse of the Soviet Union and it's relations with the United States, so Thatcher's discussion of these events and the repercussions to Europe were particularly interesting.
One the things that kept me from reading this book for so long, was my fear that I was not familiar enough with British politics or government to fully appreciate this memoir. In some instances that was true. Lady Thatcher used so many acronyms that were lost on me. I had to look up many, and oftentimes, even when I understood what they now meant, the people and departments were still too foreign for me to fully comprehend. That said, those times were the minority.
Margaret Thatcher had a keen insight about the way the world works. Her writing is powerful - her speechwriters always claimed that they never wrote her speeches, but that she wrote them and they "helped." There were many times I wanted to yell "Yes!" to an eloquent comment she made, or picked up the phone to call someone to further discuss something she had said in the book. There's an old game people play where you are asked if you could choose one person, living or dead, to sit down to dinner with, who would it be? I can most definitely say it would be Margaret Thatcher. 4 1/2 stars.
January 27, 2016
Half of Britain loved her the other half loathed her. Which side you sit on depends largely how she impacted on your life. One thing is for certain though, she is not the worlds greatest author. This was written in a style that typifies the woman's approach to all she did: it is methodical, precise and jaundiced. The MEMOIR is written in concise chronological order, by route, by route march indeed for it is at times laborious. Reading it feels like necrophilia for it is very dry and with little in the way of any real joy. I did enjoy the passages about the Falklands War and the war waged on Arthur Scargill and by consequence the miners unions and by default the communities who suffered as the two parties tore lumps out of each other. It is not a bad book, it just isn't very good. What amazes me long after the event is, apart from her success at getting Britain's finances back on track, is how focused she was. Scratch focused and replace with myopic. Her only concern appears to have been taking care of the money, of the rich letting the flow of cash act as cure-all. She was less Conservative, and by her own admission, more Gladstonian Liberal. Her passion is unquestionable. Her austere approach very questionable. Glad to see Clement Attlee beat her in to second place in the best British post war PM.
February 18, 2014
Took me forever since I was not familiar with a lot of the governmental structure and economic implications of things, but it was very educational and brought me up to speed on a lot of things that happened when I was younger and not paying much attention to the world around me. Very aware of her viewpoint throughout, it is interesting to hear her comments about other world leaders. It is more interesting to see what she does NOT say. I have a glimpse now into things I only knew in association with pop culture like the Sex Pistols, Adam Ant, movies and BBC shows....Boy, I was ignorant. And I still have so much to learn! Read another review that talked about how she spends most of the book trying to justify why she was right, and I see their point. However, that's why I read the book --- for her take on things, not an impartial review of facts.
July 27, 2007
I found this not only an interesting look into one of the most influential minds of the era, but insight into how high end politicians must prioritize events, people and actions. Her version of history brought fascinating juxtapositions to light. Controversy hovered over every move of her administration. She accepted that and explains her underlying philosophies for how she made her decisions. She earned her "iron" image every step of the way and was proud of it. I admit I skimmed some highly detailed economic parts about the battle over the Euro near the end, but jumped right back in after a few pages.
September 22, 2012
It's a doorstop of a book, and vast sections of it are excruciating unless you have a professional knowledge of the British government, and even then . . . but when she hits the Falklands War, and her foreign policy dealings with the French, Germans and Russians, she is fascinating. I was not a fan before I read it, and I am not convinced that her way was the only way (unlike Thatcher), but this was a terrific read overall. And unlike Bill Clinton, who seems to like EVERYONE, Thatcher has a lively interest in revenge upon political enemies and even a few soi-disant supporters.
September 5, 2012
Overly long and without a hint of regret or doubt as to any of the decisions that she made. Much of it reads as "I told Ronnie [Reagan] such and such, and he agreed that I was right..."; "I told Douglas [Hurd] such and such, and he agreed that I was right...". Interesting as a document of the issues of the times but could have done with a bit of editing and a dose of self-awareness.
January 19, 2013
A wonderful read. A great woman, who loved language.
It's interesting that she structures her career around the language in her public speeches. Appropriate for a successor to Churchill, I suppose. But so different from the image-making and emotional manipulations of most U.S. politicians since 1960.
It's interesting that she structures her career around the language in her public speeches. Appropriate for a successor to Churchill, I suppose. But so different from the image-making and emotional manipulations of most U.S. politicians since 1960.
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February 24, 2011I had grand intentions of improving myself by reading this book about a woman I admire, but each night I ended up picking up my fiction novel instead. Hopefully I'll return to this when I'm feeling more earnest in the future?:)
November 12, 2015
Very interesting and good read.
July 10, 2020
Fantastic book by an inspiring woman. Love her or hate her, she was an amazing leader and led the UK through some very challenging times. It would be good to have such leaders today. I found the sections on the Falkland war, the Iranian embassy siege and the fall of the USSR particularly interesting.
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May 15, 2022The world needs more selfless and courageous people like the late Margaret Thatcher most especially in Africa which has refused to develop due to corruption and bad governance.
April 7, 2023
Ma fascineaza aceasta femeie si inceputul cartii e foarte promitator !!
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September 21, 2023Quite a lady.
March 5, 2024
I am very much a product of the 1980s. The first political act I remember was Wilson's resignation as Prime Minister in 1976 and Jim Callaghan's rise to power in his wake. Consequently Callaghan's subsequent loss to Thatcher is the first election I remember.
This book looks at the decade plus that she was in power. It's an interesting book, because she talks about the things that drew me to student politics in the late 1980s. But anyone who reads it now will find it reads more like a historical treaties than it does anything else. I say this because much of what she writes about have become settled facts that everyone agrees on.
I can remember the arguments that she had with Nigel Lawson, Geoffrey Hows, the "wets" in her cabinet and the like. I also remember the heated discussions people had over the miner's strike, EMU, student loans, the poll tax and so on, but remember folks these arguments happened a quarter of a century now, so much of what she talk about feels like it happened a long long time ago, in a place that feels like, but isn't quite, England.
That isn't to say that what she wrote wasn't interesting or didn't made me smile. As an example, her certainty that they'd seen off the Labour party as a party of "prolonged government" had to make me laugh, while her concerns about how a unified Germany might destablise Europe has to make you doubt her judgment.
In short, this book is interesting because the "blessed Margaret" helped Britons redefine how they was themselves, but I'd say that people should read it as a piece of self-justifictory history now because, as I said earlier, much of the arguments she discusses became "settled historic facts.
This book looks at the decade plus that she was in power. It's an interesting book, because she talks about the things that drew me to student politics in the late 1980s. But anyone who reads it now will find it reads more like a historical treaties than it does anything else. I say this because much of what she writes about have become settled facts that everyone agrees on.
I can remember the arguments that she had with Nigel Lawson, Geoffrey Hows, the "wets" in her cabinet and the like. I also remember the heated discussions people had over the miner's strike, EMU, student loans, the poll tax and so on, but remember folks these arguments happened a quarter of a century now, so much of what she talk about feels like it happened a long long time ago, in a place that feels like, but isn't quite, England.
That isn't to say that what she wrote wasn't interesting or didn't made me smile. As an example, her certainty that they'd seen off the Labour party as a party of "prolonged government" had to make me laugh, while her concerns about how a unified Germany might destablise Europe has to make you doubt her judgment.
In short, this book is interesting because the "blessed Margaret" helped Britons redefine how they was themselves, but I'd say that people should read it as a piece of self-justifictory history now because, as I said earlier, much of the arguments she discusses became "settled historic facts.
June 11, 2018
In her book
All Must Have Prizes
, the journalist Melanie Phillips made what I once considered a very strange assertion for a right-winger: that is, essentially, that Margaret Thatcher was not really a conservative. Here it is important to note the lower case -c, as opposed to the proper noun Conservative Party. Indeed, there are plenty (perhaps even a majority) of Conservatives in the British Parliamentary Party who are not conservatives. But how could any astute political observer reach the conclusion that Mrs. Thatcher was anything but the archest of conservatives, if not the mother of the movement? In fact, after reading The Downing Street Years, I see that Ms. Phillips got it quite right—a point I’ll return to in the conclusion of this (far too lengthy) review.
It must be stated outright that, regardless of one’s own politics, Mrs. Thatcher’s political memoirs do not make for easy or even pleasant reading. The reader is instantly aware that this is a scientific, analytically-oriented brain at work (Mrs. Thatcher read chemistry at Oxford and worked in the lab that invented soft serve ice cream), as from the prologue one is immersed in highly technocratic jargon and a very dry chronological recitation of events. Due to the remarkably lengthy term of Mrs. Thatcher’s premiership (May 1979-November 1990), the book spans almost 900 pages. Precisely recalled statistics, dates, and acronyms pile upon one another so outrageously as to almost seem ironic. Witness:
Or, take for example this reflection on selecting a date for the 1983 general election: “Therefore, if we went in June it would have to be the 9th, rather than the 16th or 23rd.” These examples are excruciatingly emblematic. Not surprisingly, there is a four page list of acronyms and abbreviations attached as an appendix. Compounding the abstruseness of the narrative is a near total lack of pathos, self-reflection, or humor that isn’t biting. Mrs. Thatcher’s only expressed regrets are times when she should have been even more unyielding, ruthless in battle, and secure in the “Tightness” of her positions. There is absolutely nothing to connect with here on an emotional level. The book can be recommended only on the grounds that one is seeking a meticulous—if cold-blooded— synopsis of the major events of the Thatcher era and, by extension, the 1980s as a whole.
Though the reader risks getting lost in the weeds, Mrs. Thatcher’s focus over these many pages can be boiled down to four primary challenges which she saw facing Britain and the world when she assumed office in 1979: longterm economic decline, the debilitating effects of socialism, the growing Soviet threat, and the inexorable trudge toward economic and monetary union (EMU) for the European Community. I will organize my review accordingly.
Mrs. Thatcher vs. “Managed Decline”
Only the most partisan and deluded of her critics will deny that the country Mrs. Thatcher inherited in 1979 was in shambles. Her election victory came on the heels of Britain’s “Winter of Discontent”—a period between 1978-79 when strikes by public sector trade unions brought the country to its knees. But the struggles had begun much earlier. The British economy was chronically ill throughout the 1970s—so bad by 1974 that Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warned of an impending “breakdown of democracy.” Inflation reached a crippling 26.9% in late 1975, leading Harold Wilson’s Labour government to adopt an incomes policy that capped pay increases for public sector workers at government-mandated limits. Sanctions were levied to persuade private companies to follow suit. But while inflation had halved by 1978, Mr. Callaghan (now the PM) and his minority Labour government kept wage increases capped below 5%. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which had played nice with their Labour allies for three years, finally revolted. When Mr. Callaghan announced that the general election anticipated for September would be postponed until the next year, he set off the largest disruption of British labor since 1926.
What began with strikes by Ford workers and lorry drivers soon grew to encompass a wide cross section of the public sector: railwaymen, nurses, ambulance drivers, waste collectors, gravediggers. Social services ground to a halt as hospitals were staffed to treat only emergency cases. The Army was called up to provide emergency response services. Rubbish accumulated at such volumes that it had to be stored in public parks and squares, attracting vermin. Corpses went unburied while local councils seriously considered mass burials at sea or allowing bereaved family members to dig graves for their own deceased. To add insult to injury, blizzards and the coldest winter in 16 years depressed retail operations and weakened the economy still further. As one head of the British Civil Service reportedly remarked some years earlier, the best the country could hope for now was the “orderly management of decline.”
The Conservative Party won won a 43 seat majority in May 1979 on a 5.2% swing, the largest since Clement Attlee ousted Winston Churchill in 1945. Mrs. Thatcher became Europe’s first elected female head of government. She came in like a bull in a china shop, asking: “What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus’?” Only a character of remarkable self-confidence would seek to pick up the mantle of leadership during such troubled times. When reflecting upon those tumultuous days early in her premiership, Mrs. Thatcher recalls a famous quote by William Pitt the Elder: “My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no else can.” She does not feign modesty: “It would have been presumptuous to have compared myself to Chatham. But if I am honest, I must admit that my exhiliration came from a similar inner conviction.” A reader of American history is reminded of William L. Yancey’s encomium upon the election of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy: “The man and the hour have met.”
Mrs. Thatcher vs. Socialism
The historian Kenneth O. Morgan has written that the spectacular fall of Labour (cursed not to regain power for 18 years) and the rise of Mrs. Thatcher “meant the end of an ancien régime, a system of corporatism, Keynesian spending programmes, subsidised welfare, and trade union power.” By 1979, the United Kingdom, like much of Western Europe, had acquiesced to what seemed the inevitable advance toward comprehensive (democratic) socialism. In this sense, Mrs. Thatcher was not at all a woman of her times.
The Thatcher manifesto called for decentralization, deregulation, privatization, busting up unions, curbing inflation via interest rate manipulation and a tight control of the money supply, income tax cuts for top rates, and, perhaps most alarmingly, austerity measures. The latter policy was entirely against the pervading economic logic of the day. It was widely accepted that reducing both expenditures and borrowing during times of recession was a recipe for disaster, but Mrs. Thatcher was characteristically dismissive of “those who had not heard that Keynes was dead.” The PM was an avowed acolyte of Milton Friedman, and her government was betting on the maturity of the British public: things would have to get worse before they could get better. The overarching economic goal of the first Thatcher Parliament can be fairly succinctly stated (though it is a bit of a tongue twister): reduce the deficit, which in turn will reduce inflation and thus mitigate the need to fund future deficits via inflation.
The economic record of Thatcherism is mixed and still a matter of fraught debate. That said, I discern four key areas where hard facts may be gleaned. [This is the long version, for a quick summation, skip to the next paragraph.] First, Mrs. Thatcher’s budget measures proved remarkably effective at bringing down inflation (it ticked up again following the economic boom of the late 80s—though in The Downing Street Years, she places practically all of the blame on Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s decision to abandon monetarism for shadowing the exchange rate with the Deutschmark). Second, unemployment grew much worse during the years of recession, exceeding 3 million in 1983. It experienced a gradual decline with the boom years beginning in 1987, but never recovered to pre-1980 levels. Third, GDP plummeted into negative territories during 1980-81 while the Government pursued its stringent anti-inflationary policies. Recovery began in 1982 and growth picked up in earnest in 1985 as the boom accelerated. Fourth, interest rates were raised to an absurd high of 17% in 1979, but the desired effect was accomplished: inflation began a steady decline.
Moral of the story: Mrs. Thatcher’s budgetary measures brought down inflation to a steady 4-5% throughout most of her premiership. Those same policies led to a fairly consistent unemployment rate that hovered around 10%. If you were middle class, upwardly mobile, and primarily concerned with matters of consumerism, then her policies dramatically improved your quality of life over the socialist codes of Labour. If you were lower class, employed in state-supported industries, or historically dependent upon the welfare system, Thatcherism was a harsh pill to swallow.
The aggressive record of privatization is almost mind boggling, and on this score it’s difficult to find fault. Consider that all of these firms were at least partially owned by the state until Mrs. Thatcher sold them off: British Aerospace, British Petroleum, British Steel, Britoil, British Gas, British Leyland (which included Jaguar and Land Rover), and Rolls Royce. Many of these companies have gone on to become very successful private firms. Moreover, their privatization freed up government money that otherwise would have necessitated further spending cuts or taxation, and tax payers were no longer burdened with propping up failing or wasteful industries.
Mrs. Thatcher’s great battle with the coal miners union in 1984 is now the stuff of legend. She writes that “history intertwined with myth seemed to have made coal mining in Britain a special case: it had become an industry where reason simply did not apply.” She was unwilling to relent on coal pit closures on economic grounds, as indeed the Labour government had closed 32 pits between 1974-79. Suffice it to say that a similar strike had toppled the Conservative government of Ted Heath some 10 years earlier. By contrast, the miners gradually returned to work in 1985 having won no concessions from the Thatcher government. The union was permanently hobbled, uneconomic pits were closed, and Mrs. Thatcher won over the greater part of public opinion. As the years progressed (and due largely to the continued efforts of Norman Tebbit), the TUC was no longer in a position to cripple industry or public services with strikes. And despite the rhetoric which sough to cast Labour and the unions as noble defenders of the working man, many of the Thatcher government’s reforms were undeniably beneficial to workers’ rights—e.g., state-subsidized mail ballots, which prevented union leaders from intimidating workers into supporting strikes with public votes.
Mrs. Thatcher’s great gamble—and the one time when her thinking was not reflective of the majority of the British public—was her attempt to dispense with property taxes used to fund local government and replace them with a so-called “community charge” (which in the popular vernacular quickly became known as the “poll tax”). This was a fairly shameful act of hubris, whereby the Thatcher government called on every adult to pay a flat-rate per capita tax, irrespective of property value or personal wealth. Mrs. Thatcher laments in her memoirs that she did not take adequate measures to prevent Labour councils from hiking up the charge in order to damage the government, which she blames for the resulting fiasco. Indeed, here she concedes to a perverse undermining of her own guiding principle: stronger powers should have been allotted to central government. In reality, the policy itself was patently absurd and strongly suggests that by the later years of her premiership Mrs. Thatcher’s ego was turning her into a real version of the caricature her enemies had always painted. Reflecting on the ensuing crisis, she writes that her biggest regret was that “the very people who had always looked to me for protection from exploitation by the socialist state were those who were suffering most.” At the time, however, she refused to relent until it was already too late. The public outcry bridged political ideologies, and the fears of Conservative backbenchers and her cabinet members alike that a public rebuke at the polls was brewing proved the underlying force behind Mrs. Thatcher’s ouster in late 1990. Her successor, John Major, announced the abolition of the community charge the following year and the Conservatives won their fourth consecutive general election in 1992.
Review continued at ManVsBooks.com...
It must be stated outright that, regardless of one’s own politics, Mrs. Thatcher’s political memoirs do not make for easy or even pleasant reading. The reader is instantly aware that this is a scientific, analytically-oriented brain at work (Mrs. Thatcher read chemistry at Oxford and worked in the lab that invented soft serve ice cream), as from the prologue one is immersed in highly technocratic jargon and a very dry chronological recitation of events. Due to the remarkably lengthy term of Mrs. Thatcher’s premiership (May 1979-November 1990), the book spans almost 900 pages. Precisely recalled statistics, dates, and acronyms pile upon one another so outrageously as to almost seem ironic. Witness:
Geoffrey Howe was able to demonstrate that to reduce the top rate of income tax to 60 per cent (from 83 per cent), the basic rate to 30 per cent (from 33 per cent), and the PSBR to about £8 billion (a figure we felt we could fund and afford) would require an increase in the two rates of VAT of 8 per cent and 12.5 per cent to a unified rate of 15 per cent. (The zero rate on food and other basics would be unchanged.) I was naturally concerned that this large shift from direct to indirect taxation would add about four percentage points onto the Retail Price Index (RPI).
Or, take for example this reflection on selecting a date for the 1983 general election: “Therefore, if we went in June it would have to be the 9th, rather than the 16th or 23rd.” These examples are excruciatingly emblematic. Not surprisingly, there is a four page list of acronyms and abbreviations attached as an appendix. Compounding the abstruseness of the narrative is a near total lack of pathos, self-reflection, or humor that isn’t biting. Mrs. Thatcher’s only expressed regrets are times when she should have been even more unyielding, ruthless in battle, and secure in the “Tightness” of her positions. There is absolutely nothing to connect with here on an emotional level. The book can be recommended only on the grounds that one is seeking a meticulous—if cold-blooded— synopsis of the major events of the Thatcher era and, by extension, the 1980s as a whole.
Though the reader risks getting lost in the weeds, Mrs. Thatcher’s focus over these many pages can be boiled down to four primary challenges which she saw facing Britain and the world when she assumed office in 1979: longterm economic decline, the debilitating effects of socialism, the growing Soviet threat, and the inexorable trudge toward economic and monetary union (EMU) for the European Community. I will organize my review accordingly.
Mrs. Thatcher vs. “Managed Decline”
I preferred disorderly resistance to decline rather than comfortable accommodation to it.
Only the most partisan and deluded of her critics will deny that the country Mrs. Thatcher inherited in 1979 was in shambles. Her election victory came on the heels of Britain’s “Winter of Discontent”—a period between 1978-79 when strikes by public sector trade unions brought the country to its knees. But the struggles had begun much earlier. The British economy was chronically ill throughout the 1970s—so bad by 1974 that Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warned of an impending “breakdown of democracy.” Inflation reached a crippling 26.9% in late 1975, leading Harold Wilson’s Labour government to adopt an incomes policy that capped pay increases for public sector workers at government-mandated limits. Sanctions were levied to persuade private companies to follow suit. But while inflation had halved by 1978, Mr. Callaghan (now the PM) and his minority Labour government kept wage increases capped below 5%. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which had played nice with their Labour allies for three years, finally revolted. When Mr. Callaghan announced that the general election anticipated for September would be postponed until the next year, he set off the largest disruption of British labor since 1926.
What began with strikes by Ford workers and lorry drivers soon grew to encompass a wide cross section of the public sector: railwaymen, nurses, ambulance drivers, waste collectors, gravediggers. Social services ground to a halt as hospitals were staffed to treat only emergency cases. The Army was called up to provide emergency response services. Rubbish accumulated at such volumes that it had to be stored in public parks and squares, attracting vermin. Corpses went unburied while local councils seriously considered mass burials at sea or allowing bereaved family members to dig graves for their own deceased. To add insult to injury, blizzards and the coldest winter in 16 years depressed retail operations and weakened the economy still further. As one head of the British Civil Service reportedly remarked some years earlier, the best the country could hope for now was the “orderly management of decline.”
The Conservative Party won won a 43 seat majority in May 1979 on a 5.2% swing, the largest since Clement Attlee ousted Winston Churchill in 1945. Mrs. Thatcher became Europe’s first elected female head of government. She came in like a bull in a china shop, asking: “What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus’?” Only a character of remarkable self-confidence would seek to pick up the mantle of leadership during such troubled times. When reflecting upon those tumultuous days early in her premiership, Mrs. Thatcher recalls a famous quote by William Pitt the Elder: “My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no else can.” She does not feign modesty: “It would have been presumptuous to have compared myself to Chatham. But if I am honest, I must admit that my exhiliration came from a similar inner conviction.” A reader of American history is reminded of William L. Yancey’s encomium upon the election of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy: “The man and the hour have met.”
Mrs. Thatcher vs. Socialism
To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.
The historian Kenneth O. Morgan has written that the spectacular fall of Labour (cursed not to regain power for 18 years) and the rise of Mrs. Thatcher “meant the end of an ancien régime, a system of corporatism, Keynesian spending programmes, subsidised welfare, and trade union power.” By 1979, the United Kingdom, like much of Western Europe, had acquiesced to what seemed the inevitable advance toward comprehensive (democratic) socialism. In this sense, Mrs. Thatcher was not at all a woman of her times.
The Thatcher manifesto called for decentralization, deregulation, privatization, busting up unions, curbing inflation via interest rate manipulation and a tight control of the money supply, income tax cuts for top rates, and, perhaps most alarmingly, austerity measures. The latter policy was entirely against the pervading economic logic of the day. It was widely accepted that reducing both expenditures and borrowing during times of recession was a recipe for disaster, but Mrs. Thatcher was characteristically dismissive of “those who had not heard that Keynes was dead.” The PM was an avowed acolyte of Milton Friedman, and her government was betting on the maturity of the British public: things would have to get worse before they could get better. The overarching economic goal of the first Thatcher Parliament can be fairly succinctly stated (though it is a bit of a tongue twister): reduce the deficit, which in turn will reduce inflation and thus mitigate the need to fund future deficits via inflation.
The economic record of Thatcherism is mixed and still a matter of fraught debate. That said, I discern four key areas where hard facts may be gleaned. [This is the long version, for a quick summation, skip to the next paragraph.] First, Mrs. Thatcher’s budget measures proved remarkably effective at bringing down inflation (it ticked up again following the economic boom of the late 80s—though in The Downing Street Years, she places practically all of the blame on Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s decision to abandon monetarism for shadowing the exchange rate with the Deutschmark). Second, unemployment grew much worse during the years of recession, exceeding 3 million in 1983. It experienced a gradual decline with the boom years beginning in 1987, but never recovered to pre-1980 levels. Third, GDP plummeted into negative territories during 1980-81 while the Government pursued its stringent anti-inflationary policies. Recovery began in 1982 and growth picked up in earnest in 1985 as the boom accelerated. Fourth, interest rates were raised to an absurd high of 17% in 1979, but the desired effect was accomplished: inflation began a steady decline.
Moral of the story: Mrs. Thatcher’s budgetary measures brought down inflation to a steady 4-5% throughout most of her premiership. Those same policies led to a fairly consistent unemployment rate that hovered around 10%. If you were middle class, upwardly mobile, and primarily concerned with matters of consumerism, then her policies dramatically improved your quality of life over the socialist codes of Labour. If you were lower class, employed in state-supported industries, or historically dependent upon the welfare system, Thatcherism was a harsh pill to swallow.
The aggressive record of privatization is almost mind boggling, and on this score it’s difficult to find fault. Consider that all of these firms were at least partially owned by the state until Mrs. Thatcher sold them off: British Aerospace, British Petroleum, British Steel, Britoil, British Gas, British Leyland (which included Jaguar and Land Rover), and Rolls Royce. Many of these companies have gone on to become very successful private firms. Moreover, their privatization freed up government money that otherwise would have necessitated further spending cuts or taxation, and tax payers were no longer burdened with propping up failing or wasteful industries.
Mrs. Thatcher’s great battle with the coal miners union in 1984 is now the stuff of legend. She writes that “history intertwined with myth seemed to have made coal mining in Britain a special case: it had become an industry where reason simply did not apply.” She was unwilling to relent on coal pit closures on economic grounds, as indeed the Labour government had closed 32 pits between 1974-79. Suffice it to say that a similar strike had toppled the Conservative government of Ted Heath some 10 years earlier. By contrast, the miners gradually returned to work in 1985 having won no concessions from the Thatcher government. The union was permanently hobbled, uneconomic pits were closed, and Mrs. Thatcher won over the greater part of public opinion. As the years progressed (and due largely to the continued efforts of Norman Tebbit), the TUC was no longer in a position to cripple industry or public services with strikes. And despite the rhetoric which sough to cast Labour and the unions as noble defenders of the working man, many of the Thatcher government’s reforms were undeniably beneficial to workers’ rights—e.g., state-subsidized mail ballots, which prevented union leaders from intimidating workers into supporting strikes with public votes.
Mrs. Thatcher’s great gamble—and the one time when her thinking was not reflective of the majority of the British public—was her attempt to dispense with property taxes used to fund local government and replace them with a so-called “community charge” (which in the popular vernacular quickly became known as the “poll tax”). This was a fairly shameful act of hubris, whereby the Thatcher government called on every adult to pay a flat-rate per capita tax, irrespective of property value or personal wealth. Mrs. Thatcher laments in her memoirs that she did not take adequate measures to prevent Labour councils from hiking up the charge in order to damage the government, which she blames for the resulting fiasco. Indeed, here she concedes to a perverse undermining of her own guiding principle: stronger powers should have been allotted to central government. In reality, the policy itself was patently absurd and strongly suggests that by the later years of her premiership Mrs. Thatcher’s ego was turning her into a real version of the caricature her enemies had always painted. Reflecting on the ensuing crisis, she writes that her biggest regret was that “the very people who had always looked to me for protection from exploitation by the socialist state were those who were suffering most.” At the time, however, she refused to relent until it was already too late. The public outcry bridged political ideologies, and the fears of Conservative backbenchers and her cabinet members alike that a public rebuke at the polls was brewing proved the underlying force behind Mrs. Thatcher’s ouster in late 1990. Her successor, John Major, announced the abolition of the community charge the following year and the Conservatives won their fourth consecutive general election in 1992.
Review continued at ManVsBooks.com...
June 7, 2015
This is all that I would want from such a book. Obviously it is written from a Conservative perspective, which clearly offends some of the other reviewers, (what did they expect?).
What you get is a thorough and detailed explanation of the major national and world events during the period of Margaret Thatcher's time as Prime Minister. At each point Mrs Thatcher explains fully her reasons for the decisions she made and policies she followed. A reader may agree or disagree with the policy or its outcome but he or she will at least understand the reasoning behind it and it's intention.
It is a long book to read, but each chapter has a particular theme so taking breaks and reading over an extended period is quite possible. Helpfully the chapters are subdivided into smaller sections allowing a further break up of your reading.
I thought it very well written It is clear to read, quite fast paced, and contains a lot more humor than I expected. Anecdotes are included but they are all relevent to the content of the chapter and never distracting from the flow of the book.
Of its type it is the best book I have yet read.
What you get is a thorough and detailed explanation of the major national and world events during the period of Margaret Thatcher's time as Prime Minister. At each point Mrs Thatcher explains fully her reasons for the decisions she made and policies she followed. A reader may agree or disagree with the policy or its outcome but he or she will at least understand the reasoning behind it and it's intention.
It is a long book to read, but each chapter has a particular theme so taking breaks and reading over an extended period is quite possible. Helpfully the chapters are subdivided into smaller sections allowing a further break up of your reading.
I thought it very well written It is clear to read, quite fast paced, and contains a lot more humor than I expected. Anecdotes are included but they are all relevent to the content of the chapter and never distracting from the flow of the book.
Of its type it is the best book I have yet read.
January 21, 2015
An epic undertaking of biblical proportions reading the political career of one of the most controversial leaders of the western world who divided opinion not only in the United Kingdom but the World. Whether you love her or hate her this is a worthwhile read. Of course she did try to show herself in the best of lights but what political leader wouldn’t, but I do believe that she also openly admitted when she believed she had failed in her responsibilities as leader of this nation. And when one sees how she came to her convictions over 11 ½ years as PM and how she helped change this nation. A true must read.
June 7, 2013
This book summarizes the tenure of Margaret Thatcher's eleven years as Prime Minister of Great Britain. It provides excellent insight into the economic circumstances that swept her into office as well as those issues surrounding the war in the Falkland Islands, the first Gulf War, the IRA, her friendship with Ronald Reagan, the downfall of communism, the liberation of eastern Europe and all of the remarkable successes of her administraion. The book also highlights the curious fickleness of British politics. This is a worthwhile and interesting history book told in the first person by the "Iron Lady".
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