Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) was one of the most significant political figures in nineteenth-century Britain. He was also one of the most controversial. In this new, three-volume edition, Dr Richard Gaunt, an authority on Peel’s life and work, brings together a range of contemporary perspectives considering Peel’s life and achievements. From the first observation of Peel’s precocious talent as an Oxford undergraduate to his burgeoning reputation as a cabinet minister, the volumes draw together sources on Peel’s forty-year political career. The edition pays particular attention to the most controversial aspects of his political life – the granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, his ‘founding’ of the Conservative Party during the 1830s and the achievements of his landmark government of 1841-6, culminating in the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. It also considers Peel’s post-1846 career, and the unusual position he occupied in British politics before his untimely death in 1850. Combining perspectives from different parts of the political spectrum, the collection will be of use to a wide range of researchers, with interests in history, politics, religion, economics and political biography.

Sir Robert Peel - paragon or pariah? Peel was the greatest statesman and political leader of mid-Victorian Britain, a titan of Conservative politics, whose legacy has inspired generations in his party and in British political life. In a career spanning forty years he held the greatest offices of state including Chief Secretary to Ireland, Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and was twice Prime Minister. He was the first acknowledged leader of the Conservative Party and the Founder of Modern Conservatism. Yet Peel's seemingly peerless reputation has never been secure. The Repeal of the Corn Laws split his party, his 'Peelite' supporters joined the Liberals and the Conservatives remained in opposition for thirty years. Richard Gaunt, drawing on a huge archive of state papers, contemporary writings including Peel's own Memoirs and the latest historiography, paints a convincing picture of Peel as an exponent of effective government in the modern industrial state and a calculating practitioner, supremely self-confident, who dominated both his Party and the House of Commons. Gaunt's revisionist life of Peel will be essential reading and the standard work for students and general readers interested in Conservative and mid-Victorian political history and historical biography.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1841.