TL reading update 28
Political memoir and contemporary history
I was recently asked for some reading about the utility of political memoirs, especially, although not exclusively, in relation to Thatcher. Here are some key items:
Begin with the series of papers in Contemporary British History, 10.4 (1996). The library cannot locate this issue of the journal:
O’Brien, P.K. (1996) ‘Is political biography […]
The article starts below...
Written by Roger Middleton on December 10th, 2008 with
no comments.
Read more articles on Thatcherism's Legacy (SS, TB I).
Political memoir and contemporary history
I was recently asked for some reading about the utility of political memoirs, especially, although not exclusively, in relation to Thatcher. Here are some key items:
Begin with the series of papers in Contemporary British History, 10.4 (1996). The library cannot locate this issue of the journal:
O’Brien, P.K. (1996) ‘Is political biography a good thing?’ Contemporary British History, 10 (4), pp. 60-66. RM
Croft, P. (1996) ‘Political biography: a defence (1)’, Contemporary British History, 10 (4), pp. 67-74. RM
Derry, J. (1996) ‘Political biography: a defence (2)’, Contemporary British History, 10 (4), pp. 75-80. RM
Hamilton, N. (1996) ‘In defence of the practice of biography’, Contemporary British History, 10 (4), pp. 81-86. RM
Two key items on Thatcher are:
Clarke, P.F. (1999) ‘The rise and fall of Thatcherism’, Historical Research, 72 (3), pp. 301-322.
Clarke, P.F. (2002) ‘Margaret Thatcher’s place in history: two views’, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 24 (3), pp. 357-368.
see also:
Garnett, M. (2007) ‘Banality in politics: Margaret Thatcher and the biographers’, Political Studies Review, 5 (2), pp. 172-182.
Gilmour, I. (1994) ‘The Thatcher memoirs’, Twentieth Century British History, 5 (2), pp. 257-277.
Porter, B. (1994) ‘“Though not an historian myself …” Margaret Thatcher and the historians’, Twentieth Century British History, 5 (2), pp. 246-256.
and more generally:
Alderman, K. (2001) ‘Setting some records straight’, Parliamentary Affairs, 54 (1), pp. 134-139.
Beattie, A. (1993) ‘Biographies of 1992 and the limits of biography’, Parliamentary Affairs, 46 (3), pp. 430-434.
Gamble, A.M. (1994) ‘Political memoirs’, Politics, 14 (1), pp. 35-41.
Gamble, A.M. (2002) ‘Political memoirs’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 4 (1), pp. 141-151.
Written by Roger Middleton on December 10th, 2008 with
no comments.
Read more articles on Thatcherism's Legacy (SS, TB I).