Kirjahaku

The uneasy alliance that lay at the heart of the relationship of two of the most powerful and controversial leaders of the late 20th century: Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

C. Douglas Dillon – heir to a vast investment banking fortune, and one of the richest men in America during his political career – was a Republican who served in a Democratic administration and became one of the greatest modern treasury secretaries. He believed in bipartisanship and public duty, a sensibility that has all but faded from the current political climate.With exclusive access to the family’s archive, in The Dillon Era Richard Aldous sets fresh eyes on a well-documented period in recent American history, unfolding a deeply influential but somewhat overlooked political career. In 1953 President Eisenhower appointed Dillon as ambassador to Paris, and he promoted him to second in command in the State Department in 1958. Tapped by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for treasury secretary to reassure Wall Street that the nation’s finances were in safe hands, Dillon would become one of President Kennedy’s closest advisors, and perhaps the only cabinet member who was a personal friend. His impact on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations was immense, not least in delivering the most comprehensive income tax cuts the nation had ever seen. Overseas he worked to sustain political cooperation as the Bretton Woods system threatened to unravel. By the time he left office in 1965, the Washington Post recognized Dillon as “by far the best Secretary of the Treasury of the postwar period,” and European Economic Community president Walter Hallstein hailed a new “Dillon era.”Dillon advocated for evolution and reform over radicalism, and he placed the national interest above party interest. The Dillon Era throws new light on the postwar period, identifying Dillon as a pivotal figure in American policymaking during these crucial years of the Cold War.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr (1917–2007), known today as the architect of John F. Kennedy’s presidential legacy—and the myth of Camelot—blazed an extraordinary path from Harvard University to war-time London to the West Wing. The son of a pioneering historian—and a two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner in his own right—Schlesinger redefined the art of presidential biography. A Thousand Days, remains influential and has cemented Schlesinger’s place as one of the nation’s greatest political image-makers. In this vivid account, Richard Aldous draws on oral history, rarely seen archival documents and the official Schlesinger papers to craft a portrait of a brilliant and controversial historian who framed America’s rise to global empirialism.

William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli were the fiercest political rivals of the nineteenth century. Their intense mutual hatred was both ideologically driven and deeply personal. Their vitriolic duels, carried out over decades, lend profound insight into the social and political currents that dominated Victorian England. To Disraeli--a legendary dandy descended from Sephardic Jews--his antagonist was an unprincipled maniac characterized by an extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy, and superstition. For the conservative aristocrat Gladstone, his rival was the Grand Corrupter, whose destruction he plotted day and night, week by week, month by month. In the tradition of Roy Jenkins and A. N. Wilson, Richard Aldous has written an outstanding political biography, giving us the first dual portrait of this intense and momentous rivalry. Aldous's vivid narrative style--by turns powerful, witty, and stirring--brings new life to the Gladstone and Disraeli story and confirms a perennial truth: in politics, everything is personal.

Tony Ryan was one of the greatest Irishmen of the twentieth century. Ingenious, driven and sometimes reckless, his sheer spirit and adventurousness made him Ireland’s Aviator. Born in a railwayman’s cottage in County Tipperary he rose to enormous success. Ryan set up the airline leasing company, Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), which quickly became the largest such enterprise in the world. But it famously crashed and burned and Ryan lost almost everything. What remained was a little airline called Ryanair which was chronically loss making. Ryan set about turning Ryanair around, putting in one of his assistants, Michael O’Leary, to help knock it into shape. The rest is history. Richard Aldous gives an irresistible insight into the machinations of the man who epitomised what it means to be an entrepreneur. ‘Fascinating’ The Sunday Times ‘Masterful’ The Sunday Independent ‘Reveals the warts as well as the successes of the Tipperary native’ Irish Independent ‘The Original Celtic Tiger’ The Sunday Independent

â??Engaging and highly entertainingâ?? Sunday Times The dramatic confrontation between the two 'mighty opposites' of the Victorian age, brilliantly recreated by a talented young historian. Gladstone and Disraeli were the fiercest political rivals of the modern age.

Great Irish Speeches contains 50 of the most stirring and memorable speeches in Irish history. From the political oratories of Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Collins and Eamon De Valera to emotive addresses by the nation's celebrated poets, writers and musicians, all of the included speeches have had a remarkable impact on the course of Irish and world history. Each speech is preceded by an introduction, which places the address in context and underlines its historical significance, as well as an iconic photograph of the speaker. Presented chronologically, the collection provides tremendous insight into Irish history. Includes the following speeches: Eamon de Valera 'That Ireland which we dreamed of', Eamon de Valera 'The abuse of a people who have done him no wrong', John F. Kennedy 'Ireland's hour has come', Jack Lynch 'The Irish government can no longer stand by' Liam Cosgrave 'Mongrel foxes', Charles J. Haughey 'We are living away beyond our means' Joe Connolly 'People of Galway - we love you', John Hume 'Sit down and negotiate our future with us', Mary Robinson 'Come dance with me in Ireland' Maire Geoghegan-Quinn 'A necessary development of human rights' Seamus Heaney 'The achievement of Irish poets', David Trimble 'A cold house for Catholics' Joe Higgins 'Ansbacher Man', Gerry Adams 'Now there is an alternative', Ian Paisley 'A Northern Ireland in which all can live together in peace', Bertie Ahern 'This is what Ireland can give to the world'.