Account of high politics in late Victorian period containing papers available only since 1991.

Defenders of the Union is a concise and readable overview of the history and contentious politics of Unionism and the affect it has had on Anglo-Irish relations over the last two hundred years. It is an essential guide to this confusing topic and covers key areas such as: * definition of unionism * establishment of the union * Unionist literature * loyalists since 1972.

Joseph Chamberlain was a dynamic orator, notable reformer and superb parliamentary tactician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In his early political career Chamberlain was a radically minded Liberal Party member and a supporter of political reform, yet after the Liberal Split, his allegiance changed dramatically when his Liberal Unionist Party entered into alliance with the Conservatives. As Colonial Secretary in Salisbury's government, he was a prime instigator of the Boer War and an important negotiator in the attempts to build an Anglo-German alliance. Ultimately disenchanted with the Conservative leadership of Salisbury and Balfour, he played an integral role in the Unionist Split over the issue of Tariff Reform which ultimately led to Balfour's downfall. Travis Crosby here sheds light on an often-overlooked, but exceptionally influential politician. He argues that Chamberlain was driven primarily by a personal need for power and control - characteristics that went beyond political loyalties. Nevertheless, his accomplishments as chief spokesman for electoral and social reform, and his achievements as Colonial Secretary, were genuine and lasting.This book sheds new light on an influential character who played an important role in the development of British politics.

England in the Age of Palmerston had two players of colossal influence on the world stage: Lord Palmerston himself - the dominant figure in foreign affairs in the mid-nineteenth century - and The Times - the first global newspaper, read avidly by statesmen around the world. Palmerston was also one of the first real media-manipulating politicians of the modern age, forging close links with a number of publications to create the so-called 'Palmerston press'. His relationship with The Times was more turbulent, a prolonged and bitter rivalry preceding eventual rapprochement during the Crimean War. In this book, Laurence Fenton explores the highly charged rivalry between these two titans of the mid-Victorian era, revealing the personal and political differences at the heart of an antagonism that stretched over the course of three decades. Fenton focuses on the years from 1830 to 1865, when Palmerston was British Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister for a combined total of almost twenty-five years, and when The Times, under the editorship of first Thomas Barnes and then John Delane, reached the zenith of its success. It was a period during which public interest in foreign affairs grew immeasurably, encompassing the tumultuous 'Year of Revolutions', the famous 'Don Pacifico' debate and the Crimean War. Palmerston and The Times adds significantly to the understanding of the life and career of Lord Palmerston, in particular the relationship he enjoyed with the press and public opinion that was so vital to his incredibly long and multifaceted political career. It also brings to light the remarkable men behind the success of The Times, paying fair tribute to their abilities while at the same time warning against the long-standing view of The Times as a paragon of newspaper independence in this era. It will be essential reading for researchers of Victorian history and for anyone interested in the tumultuous relationship between politics and the press.

This book explores the life and career of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826–1902). Dufferin was a landowner in Ulster, an urbane diplomat, literary sensation, courtier, politician, colonial governor, collector, son, husband and father. The book draws on episodes from Dufferin’s career to link the landowning and aristocratic culture he was born into with his experience of governing across the British Empire, in Canada, Egypt, Syria and India. This book argues that there was a defined conception of aristocratic governance and purpose that infused the political and imperial world, and was based on two elements: the inheritance and management of a landed estate, and a well-defined sense of ‘rule by the best’. It identifies a particular kind of atmosphere of empire and aristocracy, one that was riven with tensions and angst, as those who saw themselves as the hereditary leaders of Britain and Ireland were challenged by a rising democracy and, in Ireland, by a powerful new definition of what Irishness was. It offers a new perspective on both empire and aristocracy in the nineteenth century, and will appeal to a broad scholarly audience and the wider public.

This book is an innovative appraisal of Edwardian Liberalism and the 1905-15 Liberal governments. Making extensive use of new archival research the volume identifies the major concerns of Liberals in the first two decades of the twentieth century and explores how policy-making was related to conflicting definitions of Liberal ideology.

The book phenomenon of `Club Government' in the mid-nineteenth century, when many of the functions of government were alleged to have taken place behind closed doors, in the secretive clubs of London's St. James's district, has not been adequately historicized. Despite `Club Government' being referenced in most major political histories of the period, it is a topic which has never before enjoyed a full-length study. Making use of previously-sealed club archives, and adopting a broad range of analytical techniques, this work of political history, social history, sociology and quantitative approaches to history seeks to deepen our understanding of the distinctive and novel ways in which British political culture evolved in this period. The book concludes that historians have hugely underestimated the extent of club influence on `high politics' in Westminster, and though the reputation of clubs for intervening in elections was exaggerated, the culture and secrecy involved in gentleman's clubs had a huge impact on Britain and the British Empire.