Thatcher's Trial: 180 Days that Created a Conservative Icon

by Kwasi Kwarteng

Overview

In six months, Margaret Thatcher reinvented her political party and redefined modern conservatism in one of the greatest feats of modern political leadership.

In 1981, less than two years after she had been elected as Britain's first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher was deemed unpopular and out of touch. Unemployment had risen to levels not seen since the 1930s, and the state's finances were foundering. Her chancellor of the exchequer delivered what became known as the 'no hope' budget in March, which marked the beginning of a period of an almost unprecedentedly broad range of political challenges: hunger strikes and violent protests in Northern Ireland, urban riots in London and Liverpool, and visible discontent with Thatcher from within the Conservative Party.

And yet by September 14, when Thatcher sacked 4 mutinous grandees from her cabinet, the prime minister had firmly reasserted her authority. These extraordinary six months would come to define the Conservative Party's most successful and modern leader, who reshaped the ideas and direction of conservatism around the world. To her detractors she may have been a harsh, uncaring and dogmatic leader who made the country a more unequal, materialistic and brutal place, but to her supporters, she was nothing less than a Conservative savior who prevented Britain from becoming an ungovernable socialist state. The 1983 general election would prove a triumph.

Kwasi Kwarteng intimately captures this shopkeeper's daughter's unique leadership qualities--from her pulpit-style and New Testament imagery to her emphasis on personal moral responsibility--that saw her through some of the most adverse conditions facing any world leader in modern peacetime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610395625
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	11/03/2015
Edition description:	First US Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kwasi Kwarteng was born in London in 1975. He earned a PhD in History from Cambridge University in 2000. Kwasi was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Spelthorne in 2010 and sat on the House of Commons Transport Select Committee from 2010 to 2013; he currently sits on the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee. His first book, Ghosts of Empire, was published to critical acclaim by Bloomsbury in the UK and PublicAffairs in US in August, 2011. His second book, War and Gold, was published in May, 2014.

Editorial Reviews

“A largely positive but not uncritical reassessment…Readers on this side of the pond who are puzzled by the impassioned esteem and disdain in which Thatcher is held in Britain will find much of value in this short but illuminating study.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Even now, Margaret Thatcher is a divisive figure. Those who want to read only about the evil she did should, I suppose, avoid this study. For others, it is an easy read that does not lecture: it tells.” —The Independent

From the Publisher

10/15/2015
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) is the only woman to have been elected prime minister of the UK, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. Kwarteng (War and Gold), a Conservative member of Parliament since 2010, offers a succinct, intriguing glimpse of Thatcher's leadership between March and September 1981, when the UK was beset by economic and social crises—inflation, unemployment, business closings, terrorism, labor strikes, and race riots—that nearly drove Thatcher and her party from office. The author focuses on how the prime minister responded to these challenges, as well as the allies and enemies that resulted from her uncompromising actions. During these months, "Thatcherism" became a recognized doctrine that promoted business, opposed government expansion, and was committed to law and order. Especially captivating are depictions of the emergence of the Social Democratic Party as an alternative to Thatcher's brand of conservatism, and of race riots in London and Liverpool. Kwarteng's portrayal of his subject is sympathetic, yet he does discuss her flaws, notably her intractable stances. VERDICT This lively account of Thatcher's bleakest days, before the 1982 Falklands War boosted her popularity, will appeal to general readers, historians, and political scientists, especially those who don't want to tackle Charles Moore's massive Margaret Thatcher. Kwarteng recommends Thatcher's memoir The Downing Street Years for her personal insights into this turbulent time.—Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Library Journal

2015-09-01
Britain's storied Iron Lady comes in for a largely positive but not uncritical reassessment from a Conservative Member of Parliament. Kwarteng (War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt, 2014, etc.), who represents the historically conservative constituency of Spelthorne, may offend one or two die-hard admirers of Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) with his careful qualifications: yes, she was a true-blue scourger of socialism and the welfare state, but she was defined by a largely negative program of what she was against. Yes, she had strongly held beliefs and remained true to her cause, but she was doctrinaire and an ideologue. More than anything else, she had an "almost preternatural ability to divide opinion," such that few were undecided or neutral on the matter of Margaret Thatcher. Much of Kwarteng's look at the end of Thatcher's first term in office is a balanced assessment. She was, more than any other prime minister in modern British history, open to discussion and even dissent on the part of her Cabinet, and she thrived on confrontation and debate—"provided, of course, that she prevailed." Occasionally, the author gives away more than he intends to: Thatcher, he writes, was a radical from the beginning, and her "quasi-revolutionary fervor" was deeply shocking to the established order on both left and right. One senses mild disapproval though not disavowal on Kwarteng's part as he steers the narrative through purges of that Cabinet and the government, union-busting and strike-breaking, dismantling of various parts of the social safety net, and neo-imperialist adventuring—all of which took place in the last part of 1982 and first part of 1983, when Thatcher would profoundly remake the Conservative Party and be rewarded for it with a sweeping re-election victory. Readers on this side of the pond who are puzzled by the impassioned esteem and disdain in which Thatcher is held in Britain will find much of value in this short but illuminating study.

Kirkus Reviews