Gladstone 1809 1874

William Ewart Gladstone was both the most charismatic and the most extraordinary of Victorians. His huge public career - in and out of office from 1834 to 1894 and four times prime minister - was consistently controversial and dramatic. His private life was a most curious blend of happiness and temptation. His Christian faith held the extremes of his character in sufficient harmony to avoid disintegration and to produce one of the most powerful political personalities in British history. H. C. G. Matthew's writings on Gladstone are generally acknowledged to have transformed understanding of the `Grand Old Man' of British Politics, and indeed his whole age. Appearing first as Introductions to his definitive edition of The Gladstone Diaries, they have been revised and made available in this volume, collected together in paperback for the first time. Gladstone 1809-1874: 'It deserves to become a classic of the genre' Illustrated London News 'For any aficionado of the high politics - and low life - of the nineteenth century, this book is a must' Observer 'the most sensitive and informed insight to date' English Historical Review Gladstone 1875-1898 (winner of the Wolfson History Prize 1995): 'Rarely can a single scholar have re-mapped a whole historical territory so grandly as H. C. G. Matthew has done in the case of Gladstone in particular and of Victorian politics and culture in general' English Historical Review

This biography makes available in one volume the dramatic and controversial story of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898). Surveying his remarkable public and private life, it illuminates the keen ways in which he managed to become one of the most powerful political personalities in British history.

"William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS (29 December 1809 ? 19 May 1898), was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868?1874, 1880?1885, February?July 1886 and 1892?1894), more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 when he resigned for the last time. He had also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times (1853?1855, 1859?1866, 1873?1874, and 1880?1882)."--Wikipedia.

The book tells the story of Gladstone's last three premierships and his dramatic political campaigns as he pursued his often controversial aims, particularly his mission to bring Home Rule to Ireland. Political reform, Egypt, Gordon in the Sudan, and the 'Scramble for Africa' are other major themes. The treatment of Gladstone's political career is balanced by Colin Matthew's acute discussion of his full and active private life, including his enormous correspondence and prodigiously wide reading.

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In common with republicanism or socialism in continental Europe, Liberalism in nineteenth-century Britain was a mass movement. By focussing on the period between the 1860s and the 1880s, this book sets out to explain why and how that happened, and to examine the people who supported it, their beliefs, and the way in which the latter related to one another and to reality. Popular suport for the Liberal party was not irrational in either its objectives or its motivations: on the contrary, its dissemination was due to the fact that the programme of reforms proposed by the party leaders offered convincing solutions to some of the problems perceived as being the most urgent at the time. This is a revealing, innovative synthesis of the history of popular support for the Liberal party, which emphasises the extent to which Liberalism stood in the common heritage of European and American democracy.

"William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS (29 December 1809 ? 19 May 1898), was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868?1874, 1880?1885, February?July 1886 and 1892?1894), more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 when he resigned for the last time. He had also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times (1853?1855, 1859?1866, 1873?1874, and 1880?1882)."--Wikipedia.