William Gladstone: New Studies and Perspectives

The figure of William Gladstone - the 'Grand Old Man' of Victorian politics - continues to loom-large in the history of nineteenth-century Britain. Not only was he Prime Minister four times and leader of the Liberal Party for over three decades, but he also took an active interest in the intellectual, imperial, military, cultural and ecclesiastical affairs of the day. Yet despite this towering presence, which has attracted considerably scholarly attention since his death in 1898, there is much that still remains obscure about the motivations and beliefs of the man. Divided into five sections - Images, Personal Questions, Officialdom, Ethics and Internationalism - this unique collection of highly original, interdisciplinary essays, redresses this imbalance in the historiography, providing new perspectives on Gladstone's life.A number of contributions to the book challenge standard assumptions about Gladstone. Individual essays reappraise his reputation as a pacific statesman, firmly opposed to militarism; his attitudes toward his mentor Sir Robert Peel, and his preoccupation with Ireland, during his later career. The volume also includes a number of contributions that address Gladstone's concern with international issues, his opposition to the forcible suppression of the slave trade, and his historical legacy. In so doing the book addresses the fundamental puzzle of Gladstone's career: how the 'unbending Tory' of the 1830s became the radical Liberal keeper of the humanitarian conscience in the late Victorian period. In this context, the book emphasizes the continuities in Gladstone's outlook - suggesting that there was no damascene conversion, and rather Gladstone's Toryism always had a liberal dimension just as his liberalism retained a strong vein of conservatism - and provides a fascinating and rounded study of this political giant.