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The Prime Minister - The Office And Its Holders Since 1945 (Paperback, New Ed)
Loot Price: R509
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The Prime Minister - The Office And Its Holders Since 1945 (Paperback, New Ed)
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List price R621
Loot Price R509
Discovery Miles 5 090
You Save R112 (18%)
Expected to ship within 9 - 15 working days
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Churchill once likened the Britich prime minister to a sun from
which all other luminaries in public life derived their radiance,
although the old warriors postwar record dimmed memories of his
former brilliance. The achievements of Churchill's 'Indian summer'
premiership mingle, however, with more bizarre recollections by
contemporaries about the habits of his companions at NO 10: not
least Toby the budgerigar prone to opening his bowels on the
Chancellor's bald head. This shamelessly personal style of heading
a government - and how the role had changed since Churchill had
first occupied it - are at the heart of Hennessy's examination of
this institution. It is an office that remains unique, a metaphor
for Britains's puzzling 'silent construction', shaped by its
incumbent and hence a reflection of his or her strengths and
shortcomings. The political historian's guided tour takes the
reader into the minds if the 11 individuals who have occupied the
office since 1945. In doing so, he develops a unique audit of
performance: Attlee and Thatcher score highly as 'weathermakers'
transforming the British agenda, while the hapless Eden and Major
languish in catastrophic and overwhelmed categories of their own.
Hennessy's aim is to examine an issue clearly troubling him: the
temptation to carve from such a fluid office a presidential style
of rule at the expesnse of Cabinet and Parliment. Much of this book
would, indeed, appear to be a preface to his examination of Tony
Blair's prime ministership, one dogged by criticism of his
Napoleonic command and control style - a style which Hennessy
himself warned in 1997 usually 'ended in tears'. This authoritative
history is by far Hennessy's most significant, yet it is delivered
with his characteristic ablility to feed us fascinating titbits
that bring wihtin our reach otherwise remote historical subjects.
(Kirkus UK)
In this major study, Peter Hennessy explores the formal powers of the Prime Minister and how each incumbent has made the job his or her own. Drawing on unparalleled access to many of the leading figures, as well as the key civil servants and journalists of each period, he has built up a picture of the hidden nexus of influence and patronage surrounding the office. From recently declassified archival material he reconstructs, often for the first time, precise prime ministerial attitudes towards the key issues of peace and war. He concludes with a controversial assessment of the relative performance of each Prime Minister since 1945 and a new specification for the premiership as it enters its fourth century.
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