Promotional Information

An iconic friendship, an uneasy alliance a revisionist account of the couple that ended the cold war

About the Author

Richard Aldous, the author and editor of eight books including The Lion and the Unicorn, is Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature at Bard College, New York.

Reviews

This is excellent revisionist history, giving another slant to the interaction of two political icons on the world stage.
*Publishers Weekly*

Vivid, fast-paced and immensely readable, Richard Aldous's new book challenges conventional wisdom and prods us to rethink the 1980s
*Professor David Reynolds*

An important study, based on a wealth of recently-released documents, which puts the Thatcher-Reagan friendship in a wholy new (and more sombre) light. It should be essential reading for anyone who cares about the history, the health and the future of the Anglo-American 'special relationship'
*Professor David Cannadine*

I can't speak for President Reagan, but I've been both praised and pulverized by Margaret Thatcher, and Richard Aldous seems to me to have captured the force of her personality. This is a valuable look behind the looking glass of public-relations politics of the special relationship.
*Harold Evans*

Richard Aldous’s account of the most intriguing Anglo-American double act of them all provides many surprises . . . What Aldous manages to achieve is strong research with a vivid narrative style, bringing the most dramatic moments to life
*Observer*

Aldous (British history & literature, Bard Coll.; The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli) now pairs two giants of the 20th century, focusing on the personal and especially the political relationship between leaders whose bond is frequently placed at the center of the West's Cold War triumph. Aldous aims to shift historical emphasis away from the public's "sentimentality" about this friendship and toward the "exacting diplomatic engagement between the leaders of two.states of vastly different strengths and interests." Recently unclassified material helps him make his points, but the disagreements of Reagan and Thatcher over issues such as Grenada and nuclear disarmament are far from new to the record, e.g., Nicholas Wapshott's Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage, although Aldous's emphasis decidedly is. Although this book may adjust our focus on details, it will not likely shift our larger view of these two leaders. Verdict Meryl Streep's film portrayal in The Iron Lady, out this month, is bound to spike interest in Thatcher, but general readers will be disappointed by this book's narrow scope, while academics may be inclined to slight a book that uses end-of-chapter phrases like "The result would shake Thatcher.to the core."-Bob Nardini, Nashville (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This is excellent revisionist history, giving another slant to the interaction of two political icons on the world stage. * Publishers Weekly *
Vivid, fast-paced and immensely readable, Richard Aldous's new book challenges conventional wisdom and prods us to rethink the 1980s -- Professor David Reynolds
An important study, based on a wealth of recently-released documents, which puts the Thatcher-Reagan friendship in a wholy new (and more sombre) light. It should be essential reading for anyone who cares about the history, the health and the future of the Anglo-American 'special relationship' -- Professor David Cannadine
I can't speak for President Reagan, but I've been both praised and pulverized by Margaret Thatcher, and Richard Aldous seems to me to have captured the force of her personality. This is a valuable look behind the looking glass of public-relations politics of the special relationship. -- Harold Evans
Richard Aldous's account of the most intriguing Anglo-American double act of them all provides many surprises . . . What Aldous manages to achieve is strong research with a vivid narrative style, bringing the most dramatic moments to life -- John Kampfner * Observer *