This book tells the story of the rise of Margaret Thatcher in the context of crises assailing Britain in the 1970s and how her ascent to power ushered in the neoliberal era.

Forging the Iron Lady details her journey from relative obscurity to the pinnacle of power as a collective, as well as personal, tale and how an uncertain chain of events, influenced through ideas and political agency, opened the path to certain outcomes while throwing up barriers to others. It is her “origin story” as the Iron Lady. It examines a dramatic phase in her political advance and how the tumultuous politics of the 1970s shaped her as a politician and her political ideals, and how the conditions necessary to bring about major political-economic changes were created, leading to three decades of neoliberalism. In doing so, this book offers a better understanding of the political conditions needed for a change in political-economic orders.

This book is of key interest to scholars, students, and readers of British politics and history, Thatcherism, political parties, elections, executive, and elite politics.