A Conservative Revolution?

The 1980s are widely seen as years in which the USA and Britain shared a political transformation under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. This book compares their impact across the range of public policy and upon their respective political parties. Behind it lies the question: was there a distinctive Anglo-American Conservative revolution under Reagan and Thatcher? The book examines the political elites, political ideas and policy communities animating the Anglo-American right wing during the 1980s, offering analyses of the processes and personalities shaping Conservatism on both sides of the Atlantic. Successive chapters cover ideology in practice, the Republican and Conservative leaderships, the role of think-tanks and the reaction of "moderates" on the right, and key political areas - the economy, social affairs and the constitution. The approach of British and American Conservatives to foreign policy, the core of the "special relationship", is also addressed.