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Loading... A Journey: My Political Life (original 2010; edition 2010)by Tony Blair
Work detailsA Journey by Tony Blair (2010)
None. Good book, very interesting views on abandoning the left/right binary. Some parts could be more concise though. Very readable, but your comprehension would be aided by a basic understanding of British political structure (...or just have wikipedia handy). (  ) kiwifruitman | Dec 31, 2011 |  Dear Reader Despite its appearance this book is not boring; it's a long journey of a politician. This book is a controversial autobiography, especially, during the chapters dedicated to the war in Iraq. According to his pen the UK intervention was "baptised" by the fact that, Saddam Hussein detained the weapons of mass destruction. It is also true that the motivations of the intervention were disavowed by the report compiled by David Kelly, a British scientist and expert on biological warfare. In his defence he tell us that his decision was derived by the fact that the UK's intervention was reasonable and legal according to the reports on his hands. I'd like to speculate on the fact that the hidden message of these chapters are those of a human being with his strenght and weakness, especially when he admit clearly his problems with the bottle, and when he admits that he is a political "manipulator" in my opinion this is a rare autobiography if we consider him as a politician. Cheers Italo (  ) Italoper | Oct 8, 2011 | What a great read. I didn't know a lot about Blair's politics before, but I'm really impressed at how convincingly he argues for his positions on pretty much everything - Iraq, education, health, the economy, etc. This is clearly a man who has spent many years thinking his way through all these issues, discussing them with people, and coming up with robust positions that he passionately believes in. If only we had politicians like this. The book is structured for enjoyable reading, broken up by theme and event rather than a strict chronology. There's the North Ireland peace process, 9/11, each of the election campaigns, and so forth. It's dense but succinct, well-written and lovingly copyedited (I noticed but a single typo). My biggest criticism would be the wholly unnecessary final chapter, which as he admits was supposed to be a postscript, and ended up being a credo - essentially rehashing the entire book again in one chapter. Oh, and he barely says a word at all about the enormous MPs' expenses scandal, which I had thought was one of the major factors in Labour's loss. He glosses over it very briefly twice, and that's it. ( ) stevage | Aug 1, 2011 | Well enough written I suppose ,though he does go on. I am sadly disappointed with him as I had always believed that his admiration of That Woman (aka Mrs Thatcher) was a distortion by the very right wing British media but alas no he really did admire that evil woman. It does at least explain why he made no real attempt to undo any of the damage she did. (  )1  wendyrey | Mar 23, 2011 | A colleague recommended this book. At first, I was a bit reluctant to read it because of the length. Then, I read the introdution...a six page love letter to the United States that heightened my reluctance. Not that I have anything against my southern neighbours...I just thought it was a bit much and wondered if those pages had been added to boost sales on this side of the Atlantic??? Anyway, I continued with it and enjoyed learning more about what Tony Blair was trying to acomplish -- his beliefs and motivations. He did an admirable job of sharing his thought processes and I felt the book was an honest portrayal, or at least an honest attempt to portray his time in office as objectively as any autobiographer can. Almost no personal life or scandals here -- this is one for students of government and politics. Not being a UK citizen, I found there were incidents that weren't described sufficiently for me to fully understand what was at play -- not enugh background, or at times, no explaining of the role of some key players. But, like I've said, it was already long enough..... (  ) LynnB | Mar 16, 2011 |
 När Tony Blair summerar sin politiska karriär berättar han öppet och energiskt om maktspelet i Labourpartiet och sina alkoholvanor. Svårare får han att förklara invasionen i Irak. Maria Schottenius har läst Blairs memoarer.  But since that is what he thinks, he is right to say it. The book is redeemed by such truths. Blair has a world view and is unafraid to describe it, bigger and bolder than anyone else. You can say he was mad. You can say he was a flawed genius. But you can't say he didn't matter. By fighting so hard to transform his party, whether from genuine conviction or pragmatic calculation, Mr. Blair achieved, he believes, the long-sought aim of making Labour the "natural party of governance." "A Journey" provides a priceless glimpse into the mind of the man who devoted himself to that transformation—and who stood by America in some of its darkest recent hours. All these years and political miles later, the man — hailed by The Observer as “one of the most electorally successful and effective party leaders of all time” — remains a curiously opaque figure. And the self-portrait that emerges from his new memoir, “A Journey: My Political Life,” is very much that of a man without a shadow.
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Wikipedia in English (4)
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