Overview

Whether you love or hate them it is hard to argue that the modern Conservative Party is not the most successful political party in history. Now Adam Wordsworth embarks upon a journey to discover the leaders behind this ancient institution. From humble beginnings following the Long Parliament in the mid-seventeenth century, through to their domination of the twentieth century, the Tories have had a turbulent history. Incredibly, although many volumes can be found about the more famous names (Pitt, Disraeli, Churchill, Thatcher) there has never been anything written that collects all of them together, until now. For much of the eighteenth century British politics was dominated by the Whigs. In fact, this was true to such an extent that, although the government was made up of Whigs, so was the opposition. The term 'Tory' was still extremely pejorative, harking back to its origins as the Irish word for 'outlaw'. When William Pitt the Younger ascended to the office of Prime Minister in 1783 he was eager to distance himself from the dominant political party of the time. However, even he could not bring himself to adopt the label of 'Tory'. He spent the next two decades carving out a distinct (majority) faction for himself in Parliament and his successors went on to refer to themselves as Tories, even going as far as to view it as a badge of honour. The leaders that were to follow Pitt would shape some of the most distinctive events of the last two hundred years. From Liverpool's oversight of Waterloo and Peterloo, to Wellington's acceptance of Catholic emancipation, to Peel's creation of the Conservative Party, to Disraeli's installing the Queen as Imperatrix, to Salisbury's Boer War, to Baldwin's abdication crisis, to the Second World War, to Thatcher's revolution, there is no shortage of controversy. Herein, for the first time, the leadership tenures of every head that the Tories have ever had are explored in detail. Whether weak, strong, ruthless, accommodating, Right-wing, liberal, protectionist, free traders, Europhiles or Eurosceptics, each has played his or her part in shaping the Party as we understand it today.

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