Aspects of British Political History 1815-1914

Aspects of British Political History, 1815-1914covers every significant personality, theme and issue of this period, examining the arguments advanced by a wide range of historians. It re-opens traditional debates such as the nature of Toryism before and after 1832, the effects of the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the reasons for imperial expansion after 1870. Stephen Lee challenges a number of assumptions which have become commonplace in traditional texts, showing, for example, that Palmerston was as successful in the role of Home Secretary as in that of Foreign Secretary, and that the independence and partition of Ireland were a distortion of all the developments in earlier Anglo-Irish relations.