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Product Description
Sunday Times
'An outstanding achievement, and mesmerically readable. Beckett has surely written one of the best political travelogues of the year.'
Christopher Hitchens, London Review of Books
'I am stirred and astonished at Andy Beckett's brilliance, and by the imaginative sympathy with which he rekindles the arguments and emotions of a period he never knew.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Given that Beckett writes for the Guardian, fans of Pinochet & Thatcher may not enjoy its tone. I haven't been able to put it down. Beckett describes the long term links between the UK & Chile & draws out the parallels in the politics & economics of the two countries. My 2 favourites are the consequences of rail privatisation & the truckers' strikes. Beckett demonstrates quite persuasively that Pinochet's monetarism was a blueprint for Thatcherism and that he was no benign dictator. The chapter entitled 'National Stadium' is distressing.
I could have done with a chronology as he moves back & forth across the centuries quite a bit.
I could have done with a chronology as he moves back & forth across the centuries quite a bit.
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Andrew Gibbons review: Pinochet in Piccadilly
This is primarily a book about the links between Britain and Chile over the past two hundred years. Although one chapter deals with Gen. Pinochet's detention in the UK, that is not the main content, although two thirds of the book covers the period from the Allende government to the present.
The book is more likely to appeal to British people with Chilean connections than to the general reader.
It seems quite well researched, both for the historical material on Cochrane and North, and for the twentieth century stuff. Much of the twentieth century material is either based on or enlivened by accounts of meetings with various people involved, from tortured Chilean exiles in the UK to Scottish trade unionists who boycotted Chilean air force work and the economist (Sir) Alan Walters.
The author manages to dig out (or as he might see it, dig up) a fascinating set of connections between Chile and the UK throughout the last two centuries. More speculatively, he makes an excursion into 1970s British far right politics by discussing the potential for an anti-left-wing military coup in the UK.
The book understandably misses no opportunity to dwell on the evils of Pinocho, but more questionably also tries to link his authoritarian excesses to the economic reforms of the British Tories under Margaret Thatcher. Anyone associated with either of these leaders is regarded as at least sinister.
Several times the author writes critically of British commentators who "visited Chile and saw what they wanted to see", but given his own stance, this is clearly something he does too.
Viewed from the globalised twentyfirst century where economic reform is mainstream policy discourse for aspiring countries on all continents, the author's left/right ideological perspective looks a bit dated and Old Labour. It should have been possible to take a more generous view of post-Pinochet developments, given that more time has now elapsed since the end of the military regime than the number of years it was in power (see, for example, Patricio Navia (2004) Las Grandes Alamedas: el Chile Post Pinochet). Economic reform has paid off in democratic Chile as in many other countries, not least China, and it seems churlish to ignore this.
This is primarily a book about the links between Britain and Chile over the past two hundred years. Although one chapter deals with Gen. Pinochet's detention in the UK, that is not the main content, although two thirds of the book covers the period from the Allende government to the present.
The book is more likely to appeal to British people with Chilean connections than to the general reader.
It seems quite well researched, both for the historical material on Cochrane and North, and for the twentieth century stuff. Much of the twentieth century material is either based on or enlivened by accounts of meetings with various people involved, from tortured Chilean exiles in the UK to Scottish trade unionists who boycotted Chilean air force work and the economist (Sir) Alan Walters.
The author manages to dig out (or as he might see it, dig up) a fascinating set of connections between Chile and the UK throughout the last two centuries. More speculatively, he makes an excursion into 1970s British far right politics by discussing the potential for an anti-left-wing military coup in the UK.
The book understandably misses no opportunity to dwell on the evils of Pinocho, but more questionably also tries to link his authoritarian excesses to the economic reforms of the British Tories under Margaret Thatcher. Anyone associated with either of these leaders is regarded as at least sinister.
Several times the author writes critically of British commentators who "visited Chile and saw what they wanted to see", but given his own stance, this is clearly something he does too.
Viewed from the globalised twentyfirst century where economic reform is mainstream policy discourse for aspiring countries on all continents, the author's left/right ideological perspective looks a bit dated and Old Labour. It should have been possible to take a more generous view of post-Pinochet developments, given that more time has now elapsed since the end of the military regime than the number of years it was in power (see, for example, Patricio Navia (2004) Las Grandes Alamedas: el Chile Post Pinochet). Economic reform has paid off in democratic Chile as in many other countries, not least China, and it seems churlish to ignore this.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bekett has written a very readable book about the paranoia of the far right in Chile and Britain in the 1970s,and the voices of some of it's victims.
The Allende government of 1970-73 terrified the right in Chile and elsewhere,mainly as it wanted and tried to implement a democratic break with capitalism.The rich and powerful,in Chile as elsewhere,had to choose between "capitalism" and "democracy",and decided they'd rather have the former than the latter.3 000 people died,God knows how many were tortured and exiled.
One year after Pinochet came to power,in 1974 the British Labour Party came to power after a miners' strike which many,rather simplistically,saw as overthrowing the Heath Conservative government.
From then on,many on the right in Britain saw Pinochet's Chile as a possible alternative to democracry,with it's tiresome habit of electing parties the rich and powerful don't like.A veritable rogues' gallery of the British right,notably Nicholas Ridley and Cecil Parkinson,visited Chile and thought they saw a way forward.They wasted no tears over the dead and tortured of Chile.
After coming to power,Thatcher never let a criticism of Pinochet's dictatorship cross her lips.Partially due to this,Chile became a silent ally of Britain in the 1982 Falkland War.After this,Pinochet and Thatcher became the best of pals,and Pinochet took to visiting London regularly.
Big mistake!!The book has a happy ending with Pinochet on trial,his right-wing chums in Britain totally failing to see that history had overtaken them and that their defence of a brutal dictatorship was simply repulsive.
Replete with geat observations on British and Chilean history,Beckett's book opens a window on to a period that the modern British right are fundamentally embarrased by and wish to forget.We should never forget their role as cheereaders for dictatorship in Latin America.
The Allende government of 1970-73 terrified the right in Chile and elsewhere,mainly as it wanted and tried to implement a democratic break with capitalism.The rich and powerful,in Chile as elsewhere,had to choose between "capitalism" and "democracy",and decided they'd rather have the former than the latter.3 000 people died,God knows how many were tortured and exiled.
One year after Pinochet came to power,in 1974 the British Labour Party came to power after a miners' strike which many,rather simplistically,saw as overthrowing the Heath Conservative government.
From then on,many on the right in Britain saw Pinochet's Chile as a possible alternative to democracry,with it's tiresome habit of electing parties the rich and powerful don't like.A veritable rogues' gallery of the British right,notably Nicholas Ridley and Cecil Parkinson,visited Chile and thought they saw a way forward.They wasted no tears over the dead and tortured of Chile.
After coming to power,Thatcher never let a criticism of Pinochet's dictatorship cross her lips.Partially due to this,Chile became a silent ally of Britain in the 1982 Falkland War.After this,Pinochet and Thatcher became the best of pals,and Pinochet took to visiting London regularly.
Big mistake!!The book has a happy ending with Pinochet on trial,his right-wing chums in Britain totally failing to see that history had overtaken them and that their defence of a brutal dictatorship was simply repulsive.
Replete with geat observations on British and Chilean history,Beckett's book opens a window on to a period that the modern British right are fundamentally embarrased by and wish to forget.We should never forget their role as cheereaders for dictatorship in Latin America.
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