This comprehensive biographical study explores the life and political career of Lord Derby, the first British statesman to serve as prime minister three times and the longest-serving leader in British party politics. It offers fresh insights that challenge existing perceptions of Derby and sheds light on the broader context of Victorian politics and society, making it a significant contribution to the understanding of this pivotal era in British history.
This comprehensive biography explores Lord Derby's significant role as a three-time British prime minister and the longest-serving leader in party politics. It delves into his influence on Victorian politics and society, offering fresh insights that challenge existing perceptions of both Derby and the era. The study promises to reshape our understanding of political leadership and the complexities of 19th-century Britain.
The book examines the transformation of British politics from a parliamentary government to a two-party system between 1852 and 1886. It explores the causes and mechanisms behind this significant shift and analyzes its long-term effects on the political landscape of Britain. Through this historical lens, the text provides insights into the evolving nature of political power and party dynamics during this crucial period.
Victorian Britain is often described as an age of dawning democracy and as an exemplar of the modern Liberal state; yet a hereditary monarchy, a hereditary House of Lords, and an established Anglican Church survived as influential aspects of national public life with traditional elites assuming redefined roles.0After 1832, constitutional notions of 'mixed government' gradually gave way to the orthodoxy of 'parliamentary government', shaping the function and nature of political parties in Westminster and the constituencies, as well as the relations between them. Following the 1867-8 Reform Acts, national political parties began to replace the premises of 'parliamentary government'. The subsequent emergence of a mass male electorate in the 1880s and 1890s prompted politicians to adopt new language and methods by which to appeal to voters, while enduring public values associated with morality, community and evocations of the past continued to shape Britain's distinctive political culture. This gave a particularly conservative trajectory to the nation's entry into the twentieth century.0This study of British political culture from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century examines the public values that informed perceptions of the constitution, electoral activity, party partisanship, and political organization. Its exploration of Victorian views of status, power, and authority as revealed in political language, speeches, and writing, as well as theology, literature, and science, shows how the development of moral communities rooted in readings of the past enabled politicians to manage far-reaching change. This presents a new over-arching perspective on the constitutional and political transformations of the Victorian age
Between 1852 and 1886 British politics moved from a system of 'parliamentary government' towards a two party system. This book looks at why and how this change happened and analyses the long-term implications it had for British politics.
