But Margaret’s parents prized self-reliance. They saved when times were good so that there was enough for when they were bad, and they knew how to make a little go a long way. During her term of office she reshaped almost every aspect of British politics, reviving the economy, reforming outdated institutions, and reinvigorating the nation's foreign policy. She challenged and did much to overturn the psychology of decline which had become rooted in Britain since the Second World War, pursuing national recovery with striking energy and determination. In addition, the book makes it clear that with the defined goals, success is inevitable, and the impossible is in fact possible. Moreover, a woman can be successful at men’s jobs and achieve better outcomes in comparison with males. Politics was the main goal of Margaret Thatcher, and all her life, she aspired to it. As a result, she became the first woman who headed Britain; the first prime minister who won the election three times in a row; and, the first British politician who stayed in power for a record eleven and a half years. Her determination that helped her to fulfill her goals is reflected in her motto that states, “I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end”. In this way, she is similar to another female renowned in the Muslim political history Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto was the first woman Prime Minister in the Muslim world. She was known to be callous to opponents and sympathetic towards animals. The mentioned above two female prime ministers were often compared because their political style was similar. In 1989, Bhutto became the prime minister of Pakistan, and this was a remarkable, ostentatious event as for the first time in a Muslim country, a woman headed the government. Benazir started from full liberalization: in particular, she granted self-government to universities and student organizations, abolished control of the media, and freed political prisoners. Moreover, it should be noted that having received excellent European education and being educated in liberal traditions, Bhutto defended the women’s rights, which was contrary to the traditional culture of Pakistan. For instance, she proclaimed freedom of choice. Women were allowed to choose whether to wear or not to wear a veil. Additionally, they received an opportunity to realize their potential not only as those responsible for keeping of the hearth. During her second term on the position of the prime minister, illiteracy levels among the population decreased by almost a third, many mountain areas were watered, children received free medical care, and the fight against childhood diseases began. Consequently, Bhutto became a popular politician in Pakistan and throughout the Muslim world. Margaret Thatcher was the Iron Lady of England, and Benazir Bhutto was the Iron Lady of the East. The stories of two women prove that there is nothing impossible.

The post-war consensus seemed to work – at first, anyway. The economy grew steadily for two decades. Over a million new affordable houses were built. Unemployment was low and wages high. Similarly, during the late 80s, Thatcher became steadily more convinced that European integration was a project Britain should resist, almost regardless of how that resistance affected relations with our closest neighbours. Her foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe – once an ally, now increasingly alienated – disagreed. The two senior ministers began to plot against her, more aggressively, Moore suggests, than they were prepared to admit in their memoirs. Meanwhile, the Tory hierarchy and parliamentary party, which had never completely accepted that they should be led by a radical woman, watched closely for any sign that Thatcher’s performance or popularity was deteriorating. 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 Because of her declining popularity, she was eventually forced out as the leader of the party and PM in 1990. Although she was bitter about her perceived betrayal, she left an unprecedented mark on the UK economic and political landscape. For good or ill, she changed the British economic and political situation. In particular, Thatcher marked a break with ‘One Nation Conservatism’ and the post-war consensus.

Success!

She also started studying political philosophy. It was at Oxford, for example, that she first read Friedrich Hayek – one of the twentieth century’s most influential opponents of socialism. The main points of the book are the story of Margaret Thatcher’s life and the facts that she has destroyed patriarchal stereotypes and become an example for imitation of a whole generation of English women. At the same time, this witty and honest piece of writing shows that the ‘Iron Lady’ had life beyond the boundaries of great politics. Overall, the author adheres to the idea that a concept of a female politician is real. Indeed, Margaret Thatcher was the first woman in the politics of the 20th century who overturned the belief that politics was the sphere of total men’s control.

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.Absolutely fantastic. I second Michael Barone's review that this is one of the best political biographies ever written. The num With unequaled authority and dramatic detail, the first volume of Charles Moore’s authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher reveals as never before the early life, rise to power, and initial period as prime minister of the woman who transformed Britain and the world in the late twentieth century. Many felt this was inappropriate given the recent casualties on both the British and Argentinian sides. The European Community or EC – the forerunner of today’s European Union – had been designed to foster trade and economic cooperation between its members.

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. The second term opened with almost as many difficulties as the first. The government found itself challenged by the miners' union, which fought a year-long strike in 1984-85 under militant leadership. The labour movement as a whole put up bitter resistance to the government's trade union reforms, which began with legislation in 1980 and 1982 and continued after the General Election. 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?" The strikes began on the day the government announced its plan to cut coal production. Miners in Yorkshire were the first to down tools. Sympathy strikes soon spread to other areas of the country.The lights stayed on and the government weathered the storm. Slowly but surely, defeated miners started returning to work. On March 3, 1985, the National Union of Mineworkers voted to end the strike. Scargill had failed to win a single concession from the government. Margaret Thatcher had a rough ride as Education Minister. The early 1970s saw student radicalism at its height and British politics at its least civil. Protesters disrupted her speeches, the opposition press vilified her, and education policy itself seemed set immovably in a leftwards course, which she and many Conservatives found uncomfortable. But she mastered the job and was toughened by the experience. The forces of error, Margaret Thatcher believed, were firmly entrenched in Britain. Overcoming them simply wasn’t possible without some measure of discord. But a political earthquake occurred the next day on her return to London, when many colleagues in her cabinet — unsympathetic to her on Europe and doubting that she could win a fourth General Election — abruptly deserted her leadership and left her no choice but to withdraw. She resigned as Prime Minister on November 28 1990. John Major succeeded her and served in the post until the landslide election of Tony Blair's Labour Government in May 1997. 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.