Gladstone Centenary Essays

W. E. Gladstone towers over the politics of the nineteenth century. He is known for his policies of financial rectitude, his campaigns to settle the Irish question and his championship of the rights of small nations. He remains the only British Prime Minister to have served for four separate terms. In 1998 an international conference at Chester College brought together Gladstone scholars to mark the centenary of his death, and many of the papers presented on that occasion are published in this volume. Covering the whole of the statesman's long political life from the first Reform Act to the last decade of the nineteenth century, they range over topics as diverse as parliamentary reform and free trade, Gladstone's English Nonconformist supporters and his Irish Unionist opponents. A select bibliography, arranged by subject, supplies guidance for further research. The collection forms a tribute, appreciative but critical, to the Grand Old Man of British politics.

David Bebbington is a Professor of History at the University of Stirling. Eugenio Biagini is a University Lecturer in Modern British History and a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Robinson College, Cambridge. Clyde Binfield is Professor Associate in History at the University of Sheffield. D. George Boyce is a Professor in the Department of Politics, University of Wales, Swansea David Brooks is a Lecturer in History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London Stewart J. Brown is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Edinburgh Eric J. Evans is Professor of Social History at the University of Lancaster Anthony Howe is Senior Lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics Alan O'Day is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of North London Jonathan Parry is a University Lecturer in Modern British History at Cambridge University and a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Pembroke College Roland Quinault is a Reader in History at the University of North London. He was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Historical Society from 1990 until 1998 Roger Swift is Professor of Victorian Studies at Chester College Chris Wrigley is Professor of Modern History at Nottingham University