Enterprise in Albion: Thatcherism, Entrepreneurialism, Historicity

During the 1980s, Thatcherism sought to align British citizens with market rationalities, not least through discourse and policies of entrepreneurialism. During that decade, Pete, a wheelwright and the subject of this essay, began an entrepreneurial trajectory. His path to independent small business ownership was deeply informed by his own personal experiences and by a particular reading of history, one that apparently placed him at odds with Thatcherism. In revealing the historicization of Pete’s entrepreneurialism we also confront how Margaret Thatcher’s beliefs were no less anchored in history.