Description
Book SynopsisIn The Prime Minister: the Office and its Holders since 1945, 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, from Clement Atlee and Winston Churchhill to Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, and proposes a new specification for the premiership as it enters its fourth century.
''I really can''t praise it too highly: a tremendous achievement ... an instant classic''
An
Table of Contents
Part 1 Prelude: the platonic idea and the constitutional deal; continuity and cottage pie. Part 2 The premiership: the double-headed nation; organized by history - the premiership before 1945; beyond any mortal? the stretching of the premiership since 1945; where the buck stops - premiers, "war cabinets" and nuclear war planning since 1945. Part 3 The prime ministers: a sense of architectronics - Clement Atlee, 1945-51; in history lie all the secrets - Winston Churchill, 1951-55; the Colonel and the drawing room - Anthony Eden, 1955-57; quiet, calm deliberation - Harold Macmillan, 1957-63; country values - Alec Douglas-Home, 1963-64; centre forward - Harold Wilson, 1964-70; the somersaulting modernizer - Edward Heath, 1970-74; centre half - Harold Wilson, 1974-76; the sea-changer - James Callaghan, 1976-79; a tigress surrounded by hamsters - Margaret Thatcher, 1979-90; the solo-coalitionist - John Major, 1990-97; command and control - Tony Blair, 1997-. Part 4 Coda: the premier league - the inevitability of disappointment; towards a new specification - premiership for the 21st century.
