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Christmas Pleasure Reading
I have added “There is No Alternative”: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters by Claire Berlinski to my Christmas pleasure reading list pursuant to Peter Robinson’s book review in National Review last week. I will not post the full review because of NR’s scrupulous password protections but Robinson concludes:
“There are times,” wrote the author and scholar Geoffrey Elton, “when I incline to judge all historians by their opinion of Winston Churchill — whether they can see that … he still remains, quite simply, a great man.” In “There Is No Alternative”: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, Claire Berlinski establishes that Thatcher poses the same test. Either you see her greatness or you have failed to understand the history of her times. Berlinski herself, oddly enough, doesn’t quite pass. But no matter. She has written a splendid book.
This Thatcher biography joins Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley, The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin, The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten, Waging War Without Warriors by Christopher Coker, and The Political Mind by George Lakoff. Just between you and me, I must confess I have jumped in to my vacation reading a little prematurely, although I have not turned in my final assignment in some courses I have just finished one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books. Call it pre-finals mental prep.
Hopefully some book notes to follow on Dartblog.
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