Britain’s Greatest Prime Ministers

“Winston Churchill led the life that many men would love to live. He survived 50 gunfights and drank 20,000 bottles of champagne. […] And of course, by resisting Hitler, he saved Europe and perhaps the world.” — Mark Riebling in “Churchill's Finest Hour".

Was he “the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street”[1]? Or a man whose “brilliant but unsound judgement resulted in detrimental consequences for Britain and for the world.”[2]?  Nearly 50 years after his death, debate still rages over Sir Winston Churchill’s contribution to history. Indeed, now that wartime nostalgia has mostly washed away, in Britain in particular the views on Churchill are more divergent than ever.

On one point though, the biographers and historians remain unanimous: Churchill led an astonishing life as a soldier, world statesman, historian and Noble Prize Laureate. When he died at 90 in 1965, one of the most important figures in modern history had left the stage. From providing some of the 20th century’s greatest soundbytes to successfully navigating Great Britain to victory in World War II against great odds, Churchill was at the forefront of global events for decades, becoming one of the most influential Britons in history. In 2002, he was named the Greatest Briton of All Time, and 40 years earlier he was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.

Churchill is often cited as Britain’s greatest prime minister for leading the United Kingdom against Hitler’s Nazi war machine during World War II, and indeed he was the idol of the one person who many think might have surpassed him: Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher not only became Britain’s first female prime minister, she also became its longest serving prime minister.

The political precedents Thatcher set as a woman would be enough of a legacy in its own right, but Thatcher effectively wielded her power in a way that made a lasting contribution both to geopolitics and the perception of female politicians in general. Thatcher is widely credited, along with Ronald Reagan, as one of the principal Cold Warriors who brought about the demise of the Soviet Union, whose leaders gave her the famous nickname “Iron Lady”. And of course, Thatcher was recently in the spotlight again with the release of the critically acclaimed movie The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep.

With the success of that movie, Thatcher has undergone a cultural revival and re-iconization in many quarters for her political stances and political achievements. At the same time, however, the role she played as a woman is now often overlooked out of the expedience of political correctness, and it is considered uncivil to analyze Thatcher’s political rise through the prism of sex. In fact, at times the former Prime Minister claimed to understand an issue better due to her sex and sometimes used her sex more subliminally

Britain’s Greatest Prime Ministers details the Iron Lady’s life and career, but it also humanizes her and explores the role gender played in her rise to power and ultimately her legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Margaret Thatcher like you never have before, in no time at all.