Customer Reviews
The perfect guide to the eleven post-war Prime Ministers - By: , 09 Jul 2004 
Peter Hennessy is an expert on post-war political history & has written an excellent account of post-war Prime Ministers. The author attempts to introduce the varying challenges of the British premiership & the relative success & failures of Prime Ministers such as Attlee, Churchill, Wilson & Thatcher. This book looksin detail at the ranging personalities & abilities of the previous eleven Prime Ministers & accounts for extra-parliamentary matters such as diplomatic crises like the Suez affair, the Cold War & European integration. Throughout the book, the reader should be able to compare varying styles of the premiership & judge what constitutes an effective Prime Minister. Hennessy allows the reader to make such judgements as he regularly displays each PMs strengths & weaknesses. Also, many examples of quotations, interviews & information from the PRO ensures that the book includes credibility to Hennessy's arguments. Illustrations throughout the book enables the reader to understand each PM's character & situationin greater detail as they are placed particularly following each PM. Prior to introducing the various Prime Ministers, special attention is directed at the powers of patronage, the state of the premiership prior to 1945 & the ongoing conflict following WWII including the possibilities of WWIII with nuclear weapons which would inevitably involve the PM; this introduces the reader to the wide ranging capabilities of the Prime Minister, which is shared by every post-war PM. The main problem is that the book only contains the first government of Tony Blair so if you are searching for a more recent analysis of the premiership, it would be better that you look elsewhere. Nonetheless, I believe 'The Prime Minister' by Peter Hennessey is an intriguing & well written account, which must be read by anyone studying politics, history or is generally interested particularlyin the Prime Minister
Excellent! - By: Edwin Dion, 20 May 2004 
A simply excellent piece of writing. Hennessy rattles along at a fair pacein his analysis of the individual PM's, with amusing anecdotes & truly engaging & pithy analysis, which never fails to capture the reader. You can quite easily be drawn in, & feel totally compelled; it really is a 'just the next few pages' sort of book. Don't expect a full analysis of every policy from top to bottom under each PM; that is not the purpose of it all, but rather, to give readers a real 'feel' of the individuals involved - which Hennessy never fails to do.
The history of the office, &in particular Hennessy's prescriptions for the future are probably the most dry & inaccessible of the sections of the book; I found them a fairly hard slog, even being a self-confessed Politics geek who usually loves that sort of thing. Also, a (slightly obvious.) warning; a generally high level of familiarity with post-war British politics is expected throughout -in these two senses, the book is rather more academic than it is immediately accessible to the lay reader.
A invaluable resource - By: Alistair Duncan, 05 Nov 2002 This book is an amazing piece of work. My only regret is that it only covers prime ministers since the war as I would have preferred it to cover many prior to 1945.
The first part deals with the actual role of the prime minister & his/her powers rather than dwelling on any one holder of the office. I never appreciated exactly how many pies a prime minister has his/her fingersin until I had read the book.
The second part of the book deals with individual prime ministers since 1945 & variedin how ineteresting it was. This was down primarily to the individual prime minister & not the author's prose which is first class throughout.
Any student of politics should own a copy.
If you like history, or current affairs - an absolute must! - By: J. C. Okonkwo, 25 Sep 2001 In general, this is a well constructed, & arresting analysis of the office of the PM, & its holders. The reason why it "hits fifth gear" is based on the level of personal contact with the incumbents, & the depth of reasoning; this raises the book from genuinely interesting to absolutely compelling.
When read thoroughly, the central fact is absolutely shocking: Britain never really came to terms with its post-war status. Whilst measures where taken, the economy/city/markets repeatedly forced action on a reluctant government, which comprised a set of people livingin a state of perpetual denial. Collectively, the judgement on the office holders is therefore harsh - they were led by events, they did not lead - this is the central fact, even it is not spelled out explicitly. There are a couple of great stories, of which I mention the funniest: "Mrs Thatcher was both self-aware & quite unrepentant about these traits. One one occassion she opened a ministerial meeting by banging the celebrated bag on the table declaring 'Well, I haven't much time today, only enough to explode & have my way'."
Buy it - you will not regret it!
A must buy for anybody interested in heavy weight Politics - By: , 04 May 2001 This book is a fascinating, well-written & immensely detailed insight into the office of prime ministerin the U.K. The author paints superb behind the scenes pictures & focuses on major issuesin recent history. It is well researched, with former senior politicians & Whitehall mandarins providing Mr Hennessy with the authentic details from source. I found this book both an eye opener & thought provoking, a must buy for anybody interestedin heavy weight British Politics.
