The Downing Street Years

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The Downing Street Years (Magill Book Reviews)

THE DOWNING STREET YEARS is Margaret Thatcher’s memoir of her eleven years as prime minister of Great Britain. Although she was Britain’s first female prime minister, Thatcher has little to say about the difficulties which she encountered due to her sex. Instead, she describes her role in the political crises which arose between 1979 and 1990, culminating with her removal from office by her own party even though she had never lost a general election.

Although Thatcher is famous for the dramatic shifts in domestic policy collectively known as “Thatcherism,” some of the best sections of her memoir concern foreign policy. She is especially informative on the 1982 war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Thatcher’s determined opposition prevented her foreign secretary, with the support of a majority of the cabinet, from negotiating a settlement which would have allowed Argentine control of the Falklands. She worked hard at reestablishing Great Britain’s “special relationship” with the United States, and while Reagan was president she was successful. But after George Bush became president, the United States regarded Germany as its main European ally, and Thatcher’s references to Bush are considerably less flattering than those about Reagan. Some of the most dramatic sections of the book describe the growing conflict between herself and her key cabinet ministers over British policy toward the European Community, which eventually led to her removal from office by the Conservative Party.

THE DOWNING STREET YEARS is an important firsthand account of Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as prime minister, but it must be read with caution as it is definitely her version of events. Her comments on other Conservative political leaders suggest a desire to disparage the reputation of persons whom she thinks contributed to her fall from power. The volume is almost entirely about Thatcher’s public role as a politician; those who wish to know more about her as a person should look elsewhere.

Sources for Further Study

Chicago Tribune. November 7, 1993, XIV, p.5.

The Christian Science Monitor. December 15, 1993, p.17.

Commentary. XCVII, January, 1994, p.56.

Foreign Affairs. LXXIII, Winter, 1994, p.155.

The New Republic. CCIX, December 20, 1993, p.37.

New Statesman and Society. VI, November 5, 1993, p.39.

The New York Review of Books. XL, December 2, 1993, p.7.

The New York Times Book Review. XCVIII, November 14, 1993, p.1.

Newsweek. CXXII, November 1, 1993, p.41.

The Observer. October 24, 1993, p.17

The Spectator. CCLXXI, November 6, 1993, p.46.

The Times Literary Supplement. October 29, 1993, p.28.

The Wall Street Journal. October 29, 1993, p. A12.

The Washington Post Book World. XXIII, October 31, 1993, p.1.

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