The first study to examine in detail the construction and meaning of Palmerston's reputation as the "national" minister and how the careful projection of this popular image to a wide audience allowed him to bring to bear on parliamentary politics a broad range of extra-parliamentary influences.

The Second Reform Act, passed in 1867, created a million new voters, doubling the electorate and propelling the British state into the age of mass politics. It marked the end of a twenty year struggle for the working class vote, in which seven different governments had promised change. Yet the standard works on 1867 are more than forty years old and no study has ever been published of reform in prior decades. This study provides the first analysis of the subject from 1848 to 1867, ranging from the demise of Chartism to the passage of the Second Reform Act. Recapturing the vibrancy of the issue and its place at the heart of Victorian political culture, it focuses not only on the reform debate itself, but on a whole series of related controversies, including the growth of trade unionism, the impact of the 1848 revolutions and the discussion of French and American democracy.

Peace, war and party politics examines the mid-Victorian Conservative Party’s significant but overlooked role in British foreign policy and in contemporary debate about Britain’s relations with Europe. The book considers the Conservatives’ response – in opposition and government – to the tumultuous era of Napoleon III, the Crimean war and Italian unification. Within a clear chronological framework, it focuses on ‘high’ politics, and offers a detailed account of the party’s foreign policy in government under its longest-serving but forgotten leader, the fourteenth Earl of Derby. It attaches equal significance to domestic politics, and incorporates a provocative new analysis of Disraeli’s role in internal tussles over policy, illuminating the roots of the power struggle he would later win against Derby’s son in the 1870s. Overall, it helps to provide us with a fuller picture of mid-Victorian Britain’s engagement with the world. This book will be of use to those teaching and studying Victorian politics and foreign policy at all levels in higher education.

Aims to bring alive, through the eyes of their contemporaries, three of the greatest political figures of the Victorian era - Henry, third Viscount Palmerston, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. This four-volume set draws together various documents including journals and diaries, pamphlets, correspondence, and other ephemeral literature.

Aims to bring alive, through the eyes of their contemporaries, three of the greatest political figures of the Victorian era - Henry, third Viscount Palmerston, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. This four-volume set draws together various documents including journals and diaries, pamphlets, correspondence, and other ephemeral literature. Volume 1 covers the political life of Lord Palmerston.

The Derbys of Knowsley Hall have been neglected by historians to an astonishing degree. In domestic political terms, the legacies of Disraeli and his Conservative successors have long obscured their Lancastrian aristocratic predecessors. As far as foreign policy is concerned, twentieth century politics and scholarship have often suggested crude polarities: for example, the idea of 'appeasement' versus Churchillian belligerence has its nineteenth century equivalent in Aberdeen's apparent rivalry with Palmerston. The subtleties of other views, such as those represented by the Derbys, have either been overlooked or misunderstood. In addition, the fact that much crucial archival and editorial work has only been carried out in the last two decades has had a significant impact. Examining a range of topics in domestic and foreign policy, this collection brings a fresh approach to the political history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through a series of innovative essays. It will appeal to those with an interest in the decline of the aristocracy, Victorian high politics and the politics of the regions, as well as the Conservative tradition in foreign policy.

This study explores the British and American attempts to suppress both piracy and slavery in the equatorial Atlantic in the period 1816 to 1865. It aims to demonstrate the pivotal role of naval policy in defining the Anglo-American relationship. It defines the equatorial Atlantic as the region encompassing the coastal zones of the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, Northern Brazil, and the African coast from Cape Verde to the south of the Congo River. It explores the use of sea power by both nations in pursuit of their goals, and the Anglo-American naval relations during this relatively co-operative period. At its core, it argues that naval activities result from national interests - in this instance protecting commerce and furthering economic objectives, a source of tension between America and Britain during the period. It confirms that the two nations were neither allies nor enemies during the period, yet learnt to co-exist non-violently through their strategic use of sea power during peacetime. The study consists of an introductory chapter, eight chapters of analysis, and a select bibliography.