Margaret Thatcher: A Life and Legacy (Oxford University Press), by David Cannadine

Humorlessbut hardworking, Margaret Thatcher leaped boundaries of class and sexism tobecome the U.K.’s first female prime minister. In his sensibly reasonedaccount, British historian David Cannadine describes her as an unpopularpopulist whose floundering political fortunes were reversed early on when shedefeated Argentina’s fascist regime in the Falklands War. Single-mindedlydevoted to free market ideology, she denied any connection between socialunrest and economic deprivation. As the wrecking ball that smashed Britain’squasi-socialism, Thatcher swam in the rightward tide that swept the democraticworld in the 1980s. She encouraged a culture of self-interested greed, was onthe history’s wrong side by backing apartheid but on the right side bysupporting change in the Soviet Bloc. Her legacy continues to overshadow the U.K.as the kingdom grapples with its future.