The diverse coalition of forces that came to be known as the Liberal party dominated British politics in the period between 1830 and 1886. This book seeks to account for the remarkable success of the Liberals by analysing who they were, both in parliament and in the constituencies, and showing how they managed to inter-relate. But at the same time it is emphasised that the dominance of the Liberals was seldom a simple matter, let alone a foregone conclusion. The complex story of the Liberal ascendancy requires the interweaving of high political strategy, the practical business of government, the electoral position of the party, and the development of Liberal ideology. It also involves assessing the personalities of outstanding individuals such as Earl Grey, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, and W.E. Gladstone.

The diverse coalition of forces that came to be known as the Liberal Party dominated British politics in the period between 1830 and 1886. This book seeks to account for the remarkable success of the Liberals by analysing who they were, both in parliament and in the constituencies, and showing how they managed to interrelate. It is a striking feature of nineteenth-century political history that, at a time of continuous and profound economic and social change, there existed in Britain a broadly based coalition of the 'left-centre' which was arguably more effective, from a long-term point of view, than the Labour Party which superseded it in the 1920s. But at the same time, as this book emphasises, the dominance of the Liberals was seldom a simple matter, let alone a foregone conclusion. The complex story of the Liberal ascendancy requires the interweaving of high political strategy, the practical business of government, the electoral position of the party, and the development of Liberal ideology. It also involves assessments of the personalities of outstanding individuals such as Earl Grey, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, and W. E. Gladstone. Finally, it is necessary to consider the extent to which the Liberal Party by the late-nineteenth century was in a state of crisis. The great Liberal schism of 1886, over the question of Home Rule for Ireland, is examined, and its consequences related to other evidence pointing to the erosion of sections of Liberal electoral support, and challenges to the hegemony of Liberal ideas.

As the governing party of peace and reform, and then as the third party striving to keep the flame of freedom alive, the Liberal Party, the SDP and the Liberal Democrats have played an undoubtedly crucial role in the shaping of contemporary British society. And yet, the leaders who have stood at its helm - from Earl Grey to Nick Clegg, via William Gladstone, David Lloyd George and Paddy Ashdown - have steered the Liberal vessel with enormously varying degrees of success. With the widening of the franchise, revolutionary changes to social values and the growing ubiquity of the media, the requirements, techniques and goals of Liberal leadership since the party's origins in the struggle for the Great Reform Act have been forced to evolve almost beyond recognition - and not all its leaders have managed to keep up. This comprehensive and enlightening book considers the attributes and achievements of each leader in the context of their respective time and political landscape, offering a compelling analytical framework by which they may be judged, detailed personal biographies from some of the leading academics and experts on Liberal history, and exclusive interviews with former leaders themselves. An indispensable contribution to the study of party leadership, British Liberal Leaders is the essential guide to understanding British political history and governance through the prism of those who created it.

The Liberal Unionist party was one of the shortest-lived political parties in British history. It was formed in 1886 by a faction of the Liberal party, led by Lord Hartington, which opposed Irish home rule. In 1895, it entered into a coalition government with the Conservative party and in 1912, now under the leadership of Joseph Chamberlain, it amalgamated with the Conservatives. Ian Cawood here uses previously unpublished archival material to provide the first complete study of the Liberal Unionist party. He argues that the party was a genuinely successful political movement with widespread activist and popular support which resulted in the development of an authentic Liberal Unionist culture across Britain in the mid-1890s. The issues which this book explores are central to an understanding of the development of the twentieth century Conservative party, the emergence of a 'national' political culture, and the problems, both organisational and ideological, of a sustained period of coalition in the British parliamentary system.

"The Transformation of Urban Liberalism" re-evaluates the dramatic and turbulent political decade following the 'Third Reform Act', and questions whether the Liberal Party's political heartlands - the urban boroughs - really were in decline. In contrast to some recent studies, it does not see electoral reform, the Irish Home Rule crisis and the challenge of socialism as representing a fundamental threat to the integrity of the party. Instead this book illustrates, using parallel case studies, how the party gradually began to transform into a social democratic organisation through a re-evaluation of its role and policy direction. This process was not one directed from the centre - despite the important personalities of Gladstone and Rosebery - but rather one heavily influenced by 'grass roots politics'. Consequently, it suggests that late Victorian politics was more democratic and open than sometimes thought, with leading urban politicians forced to respond to the demands of party activists. Changes in the structure of urban rule produced new policy outcomes and brought new collectivist forms of New Liberalism onto the political agenda. Thus, it is argued that without the political transformations of the decade 1885-1895, the radical liberal governments of the Edwardian era would not have been possible.

In the mid-Victorian era, liberalism was a practical politics: it had a party, it informed legislation, and it had adherents who identified with and expressed it as opinion. It was also the first British political movement to depend more on people than property, and on opinion rather than interest. But how would these subjects of liberal politics actually live liberalism? To answer this question, Elaine Hadley focuses on the key concept of individuation—how it is embodied in politics and daily life and how it is expressed through opinion, discussion and sincerity. These are concerns that have been absent from commentary on the liberal subject. Living Liberalism argues that the properties of liberalism—citizenship, the vote, the candidate, and reform, among others—were developed in response to a chaotic and antagonistic world. In exploring how political liberalism imagined its impact on Victorian society, Hadley reveals an entirely new and unexpected prehistory of our modern liberal politics. A major revisionist account that alters our sense of the trajectory of liberalism, Living Liberalism revises our understanding of the presumption of the liberal subject.

While there are many works on British liberalism, this is the first to deal substantially with the transatlantic and international content of liberalism. Gerlach considers the transatlantic thought of prominent contemporary figures such as William Gladstone, John Morley, William Harcourt and Andrew Carnegie. A fascinating account that paves the way for the political and social rapprochement of the twentieth century.