Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography

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And yet, Thatcher’s contains much more detailed political discussion. While Blair chooses to share his toilet habits, Thatcher writes long and detailed (though defensive) rationales for many of the policies she adopted. To give a single example from their respective autobiographies, I understand much more clearly Thatcher’s argument for defending the Falklands than Blair’s argument for invading Iraq. Where I disagree with Thatcher, I can still follow her line of argument in a way that I cannot even where I agree with Blair. Beginning with her upbringing in Grantham, she goes on to describe her entry into Parliament. Rising through the ranks of this man’s world, she led the Conservative Party to victory in 1979, becoming Britain's first woman prime minister.

The campaign in Dartford marked the beginning of an eventful decade. Margaret met her husband, Denis, a fellow scientist, and gave birth to twins – Mark and Carol. Her rise through the ranks of the Conservative party continued. In 1959, she was given a safe seat of her own – Finchley, in London.There was her sex, for starters. A woman had never led one of the big parties, let alone the country. Yet having highlighted her fogeyishness, Moore – perhaps because he is a bit of a fogey himself – does not explore its implications. For all the awesome scale and thoroughness of his trilogy, over 20 years in the researching and writing, the shifting social texture of Britain under Thatcher is largely missing. Without it, the books fall short of being definitive. Thatcher fell, and the still-Thatcherite Tory party has struggled since, not just because of political plots and personalities – grippingly portrayed here though they are – but because Thatcherism gradually stopped offering dreams and solutions to ordinary Britons. For my review, I am copying from a message I sent to my Aunt. "Ironically, I've been completing this first of 3 volumes of Margaret Thatcher's official biography while watching the new "The Crown" season involving Mrs Thatcher. I am on Episode 6 of the TV series, but, although the series gets some things right, I think it ultimately doesn't do justice to the incredible accomplishments and humanity of this amazing leader, the first female leader of a major Western nation in Europe (of course, we haven't had a female President yet). I haven't seen the last 4 episodes, and the first volume of the biography only goes until victory in the Falklands War in 1982 - but there is no doubt that, if it wasn't for Mrs Thatcher, the UK wouldn't have risen out of the socialist doldrums of the 1960/1970's to again be a relevant power in the world and help defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War as well. It is one of the beneficial coincidences of history that she and Reagan served during much of the same time and shared a world view fostering democratic capitalism and fighting socialism and communism to win the Cold War. The Crown is a TV show and it's popular nowadays, as so many did in the 1980's, to portray Mrs Thatcher as cold and inhuman, when, in fact, her steadfastness in economic reform literally saved the country. How inhuman is that?" That changed in 1981. A coup in Buenos Aires installed a new dictatorship, but unlike previous regimes, when it came to the Falklands, the military junta or “council” wasn’t happy to just talk the talk – it wanted to walk the walk, too. But chemistry took second place to politics in Margaret Thatcher's future plans. Conservative politics had always been a feature of her home life: her father was a local councillor in Grantham and talked through with her the issues of the day. She was elected president of the student Conservative Association at Oxford and met many prominent politicians, making herself known to the leadership of her party at the time of its devastating defeat by Labour at the General Election of 1945.

It was in Dartford too that she met her husband, Denis Thatcher, a local businessman who ran his family's firm before becoming an executive in the oil industry. They married in 1951. Twins — Mark and Carol —were born to the couple in 1953. In foreign policy, she got on well with American President Ronald Reagan. They often met and talked of a ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK. Mrs Thatcher also expressed respect for Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. She famously said of Gorbachev, that ‘he was a man who we could do business with’ There would be international outcry, of course, but Anaya thought Argentina could get away with it. The country was a key ally of the United States, which was trying to contain Communism in South America. Britain, by contrast, was weaker than ever before. Officially, Washington would condemn Argentina. Unofficially, Anaya believed, the US might just turn a blind eye.John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher after she announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader and prime minister on November 22, 1990. After graduating, she moved to Colchester, where she worked as a research chemist for BX Plastics. In 1951, she was invited to stand as the Conservative candidate in the safe Labour seat of Dartford. Although she lost, she impressed many in the party with her strong, articulate views. She also married Denis Thatcher in 1951. In 1953, she gave birth to two twins Carol and Mark. The National Union of Mineworkers played a key role in those strikes. They stopped coal production and caused severe fuel shortages. Heath’s government collapsed the following year.

The main impact of her first term was economic. Inheriting a weak economy, she reduced or eliminated some governmental regulations and subsidies to businesses, thereby purging the manufacturing industry of many inefficient—but also some blameless—firms. The result was a dramatic increase in unemployment, from 1.3 million in 1979 to more than double that figure two years later. At the same time, inflation doubled in just 14 months, to more than 20 percent, and manufacturing output fell sharply. Although inflation decreased and output rose before the end of her first term, unemployment continued to increase, reaching more than three million in 1986. When she graduated in 1946, she already knew what she wanted to do with her life – she wanted to become an MP and put Britain on the path to greater freedom and prosperity. When summarizing the book, it should be noted that in the beginning, it describes Margaret Thatcher’s childhood in detail. For example, one learns that Margaret Thatcher (nee Roberts) was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantema, Lincolnshire. When telling about her early days, Thatcher intends to show that education that one receives is not necessarily an indicator of what heights a person reaches. For instance, the book states that initially Margaret Thatcher was educated as a chemist. She studied chemistry for four years at Oxford University and received her Bachelor of Science degree. Then, she worked as a research chemist upon the development of emulsifiers for the production of ice cream. Yet, she did not pursue this career and turned to politics. Her political career has actually become the main aspect in the autobiography. According to Margaret Thatcher, while she was still a student, she became a chairperson of the Conservative Party of Oxford University. From the beginning of the 1950s, she began to fight for a place in the Parliament, and in 1959, she achieved her goal by becoming a member of the House of Commons. Later, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first and so far the only woman who occupied the post of the Prime Minister of Great Britain. She stayed on the position for three terms that was the longest time since 1827. At the same time, Margaret Thatcher was also the first woman prime minister of the European country. For such determination and commitment, she was given a ‘iron lady’. Therefore, the author shows the reader that a woman as well as a man can reach the top positions in politics. In addition to telling about Thatcher’s political career, the book uncovers facts regarding her personal and family life and proves that a successful woman can combine both work and family responsibilities.I was 11 when Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979. She was without doubt the most divisive figures in British postwar politics,and I wanted to find out for myself why she attracted such strong feelings. Britain’s legal claim to the Falklands rests on the express wishes of the people who live there – the descendents of the settlers who came from Britain in the nineteenth century.

The exchange rate also rose, meaning that the British pound was worth more compared to other currencies. As a result, it was cheaper to import goods and more expensive to export them. Instead, we get a few concluding insights into Thatcher as a person. They are all sharp, and often make her seem more sympathetic. Perhaps the best of all is this: “Mrs Thatcher combined an immense assurance about following her own way with a permanent uneasiness in life.” She created an uneasy country for the rest of us to live in.Moore] has discharged the first part of his commission superbly. He has marshalled a huge range of sources, many of them new, without letting himself be swamped… He has spoken to practically everyone who ever had anything to do with her, and interweaves their recollections skilfully to bring out wider themes… If the second volume, charting her mounting hubris and eventual nemesis, maintains this quality it will be a tremendous achievement.”–John Campbell, TheIndependent Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister 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. The prose is intricate, elegant and laced with dry humour. The rather obvious title – taken from her self-mythologising speech to the 1980 Tory party conference – is actually deceptive. Unlike some of her eulogists, who write as if her reign was almost divinely ordained, Moore rightly suggests that it was in many ways a fluke. She surprised nearly everyone when she supplanted Ted Heath as Tory leader. If Jim Callaghan, another of the men who fatally underestimated her, had not funked calling an election in the autumn of 1978, before the winter of discontent destroyed his authority, she might well have fought just one election and lost it and there would never have been such a thing as Thatcherism. Moore places appropriate emphasis on her ideological zigzags on the way to the top and her insecurities once she got there, including the capitulation to the miners in 1981 because she was not yet ready for battle.