Thatcher's Secret War: Subversion, Coercion, Secrecy and Government, 1974-90

Clive Bloom

ISBN 10: 0752499742 / ISBN 13: 9780752499741

Published by The History Press, 2015

About this Item

240mm. Pp. 320.

Seller Inventory # 6928

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Thatcher's Secret War: Subversion, Coercion, Secrecy and Government, 1974-90
• Publisher: The History Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0752499742
• ISBN 13: 9780752499741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 BREAD AND ROSES AWARD FOR RADICAL PUBLISHING

Margaret Thatcher remains one of the United Kingdom’s most polarising prime ministers. This provocative investigation sheds new light on the secret, internal ‘cold war’ that the Iron Lady and her government waged against ‘the enemy within’: anti-nuclear, new age and ecology campaigners; poll tax protesters; trade unionists at GCHQ and striking miners; feminists and homosexuals; Scottish nationalists; Ken Livingstone and the GLC; Derek Hatton and the city councillors of Liverpool; protesters and rioters in Brixton, Toxteth and Broadwater Farm; the far right; the EU; and the IRA – among others. It was a campaign fuelled by paranoia on both the left and right of the political spectrum and fought with corruption, black propaganda, dirty tricks and even murder. Expertly juxtaposing notable events with today’s political arena, author Clive Bloom surmises that the United Kingdom is rapidly changing and that although Thatcher’s ideals seem to have vanished, one remains: the power and importance of the extra-parliamentary state and its surveillance methods and hidden powers in a new age of terrorism. Thatcher’s Secret War provides a timely, critical and compelling study of a deeply complex and controversial premiership. Accessible, fascinating and compulsive, this is a book that may well ruffle feathers and rattle cages.

About the Author

CLIVE BLOOM is Professor in Residence at the Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing at Hull University and also holds a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Western Timisoara, Romania. He was the historical consultant to the BBC and a number of national and international newspapers on the G20 disturbances and the 2011 riots in Britain. He is an occasional feature writer for The Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Irish Times and the London Evening Standard, as well as being quoted in The Washington Post. He regularly appears on television and radio and he is quoted in The Columbia Book of World Quotations. He has also advised the British Cabinet Office on public disorder issues.