The Major Effect: An Overview of John Major's Premiership

by Dennis Kavanagh (Editor), Anthony Seldon (Editor)

500 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Andres Cordoba · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went in expecting great things from the BGE series author's, Anthony Sheldon and Dennis Kavanaugh. I was not disappointed. The book is extremely well written, especially given the time-frame it covers, only the first four years of John Major's Premiership. Despite this extremely narrow coverage window, the book does an exceptional job at covering a large number of policy areas to great effect, with generally extremely competent authors that give each section and chapter different flavors. The first section on Politics and Government especially lays out the privatizing tendency of the time period and in major, that percolates throughout the entire policy structure in many intriguing, and in my opinion destructive ways. While Thatcher's changes get a lot of credit, rightfully so in many areas, the Major effect plowing on in increasingly less market-oriented terrain is in clear play here. Though certainly not the most bombastic of premierships, I think many will be surprised at the important policy and lessons that were laid out in the 90s in the context of Major and beyond rather than the more credited lengthy stays of Thatcher and Blair. Brilliant.