Suchergebnisse

This volume publishes extracts from over 500 primary documents, with detailed introduction and thorough editorial commentary, relating to the foreign policy of a succession of British Conservative governments in the nineteenth century. It examines the three minority administrations of the fourteenth Earl of Derby (1852; 1858-9; 1866-8) and the two governments led by Benjamin Disraeli (1868; 1874-80). It concludes with the resignation of the fifteenth Earl of Derby as Foreign Secretary in 1878.

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.

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 equ