David Cannadine

Really liked. From a historical perspective Cannadine criticizes a common tendency to view the story of humanity as a clash between opposing sides, whether those are religious, national, class, gender, race, or "civilization vs barbarism." In all cases he shows that these divisions are not nearly as clear as some propose.

From the conclusion:

Whether envisaged individually or collectively, the reality of the human past has always been informed by dialogue, interaction, connection, borrowing, blending, and assimilation, at least as much as it has been by disagreement, hostility, belligerence, conflict, separation, or unlikeness.… (more)

This short biography is actually the entry for Thatcher in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. According to the introduction, it's one of the longest entries in the ODNB, and Oxford therefore decided to republish the entry as a stand-alone book. It definitely reads like a solid encyclopedia entry, but as a book I found it was balanced almost to a fault: Cannadine argues that Thatcher was neither as terrible has her detractors would claim, not as great as her admirers believe. My impression, after reading this book, is that she was unpleasant, dishonest, and rather foolish. In Cannadine's conclusion he argues that her significance was negligible, due more to her personality and historical accident than to any real achievements or failures of her own making. All of which begs the question, for me at least, why her entry needed to be so lengthy. If you're looking for a fair biography, then I recommend this one, but it must be said that it lacks the verve you would probably find in more polemical treatments.… (more)