The Historiography of Gladstone and Disraeli

Ian St John

Description

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the lively historical controversies surrounding the political careers of Gladstone and Disraeli.

This book traces the often sharply differing perspectives historians have formed with regard to the key incidents in the careers of the two foremost politicians of the Victorian age – Gladstone and Disraeli. Following the parallel careers of both men, it focuses upon a series of contentious questions, ranging from why Disraeli opposed Corn Law repeal in 1846 and Gladstone abandoned his High Tory politics for Peelism, to whether Disraeli was ever an Imperialist and why Gladstone took up the cause of Irish Home Rule. By juxtaposing the contrasting interpretations advocated by historians, it brings home to students how history is a continually evolving subject in which every generation poses new questions, or reformulates answers to old ones – encouraging those studying the subject to realise that history is an ongoing dialogue to which they are called upon to contribute.

Preface; 1. Gladstone and Disraeli to 1846; 2. Gladstone and Disraeli to 1865; 3. Why Did Disraeli Oversee the Passage of such a Radical Reform Act in 1867?; 4. Gladstone In and Out of Power 1868-1874; 5. Gladstone versus Disraeli 1874-80; 6. Gladstone Alone 1880-1885; 7. Gladstone and Ireland; 8. Gladstone and Disraeli: Ideological Perspectives

Sujets

• Israel
• Europe
• General
• Great Britain
• General officer
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• HISTORY

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 03 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783085309
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI
Anthem Perspectives in History
Titles in the Anthem Perspectives in History series combine a thematic overview with analyses of key areas, topics or personalities in history. The series is targeted at high-achieving A Level, International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement pupils, first-year undergraduates and an intellectually curious audience.
A History of Ireland, 1800-1922
Theatres of Disorder?
Hilary Larkin
Britain in India, 1858-1947
Lionel Knight
Disraeli and the Art of Victorian Politics
Second Edition
Ian St John
Disraeli and the Art of Victorian Politics
Ian St John
Gladstone and the Logic of Victorian Politics
Ian St John
King John
An Underrated King
Graham E. Seel
The Creation of Modern China, 1894-2008
The Rise of a World Power
Iain Robertson Scott
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI
Ian St John
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2016
by ANTHEM PRESS
75-76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Ian St John 2016
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: St John, Ian, 1965-
Title: The historiography of Gladstone and Disraeli / Ian St John.
Description: London : Anthem Press, 2016. | Series: Anthem perspectives in history; 1 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016020798 | ISBN 9781783085286 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Great Britain-Politics and government-1837-1901. | Great Britain-History-Victoria, 1837-1901-Historiography. | Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart), 1809-1898. | Disraeli, Benjamin, 1804-1881. | Prime ministers-Great Britain-Biography. | BISAC: HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century. | HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.
Classification: LCC DA560 .S68 2016 | DDC 941.081092/2-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020798
ISBN-13: 978 1 7830 8528 6 (Pbk)
ISBN-10: 1 78308 528 2 (Pbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Preface
1. Gladstone and Disraeli to 1851
1.1 Why Did Gladstone Go from High Tory to Reforming Peelite?
1.2 What Motivated Disraeli s Opposition to Peel in the 1840s?
2. Gladstone and Disraeli to 1865
2.1 Why Did Gladstone Join Palmerston s Liberal Government in 1859?
2.2 How Effective a Chancellor of the Exchequer Was Gladstone?
2.3 How Effective an Opposition Leader Was Disraeli?
3. Why Did Disraeli Oversee the Passage of Such a Radical Reform Act in 1867?
3.1 Why Did Disraeli Oversee the Passage of Such a Radical Reform Act in 1867?
4. Gladstone in and out of Power 1868-1874
4.1 How Successful Was Gladstone s First Administration?
4.2 Why Did Gladstone Lose the 1874 Election?
5. Gladstone versus Disraeli 1874-1880
5.1 Was Disraeli a Serious Social Reformer?
5.2 How Far Was Disraeli an Imperialist?
5.3 Why Did Gladstone Take Up the Balkan Agitation in 1876?
6. Gladstone Alone 1880-1885
6.1 Why Did Gladstone Intervene in Egypt?
6.2 Was Gladstone a Unifying or a Divisive Figure in the Liberal Party?
7. Gladstone and Ireland
7.1 Gladstone and Irish Church Disestablishment
7.2 Why Did Gladstone Pursue Irish Home Rule?
7.3 Why Did Gladstone s 1886 Home Rule Bill Fail?
8. Gladstone and Disraeli: Political Principles
8.1 Did Disraeli Possess Any Political Principles?
8.2 Was Gladstone s Career Characterized by a Steady Progression toward Liberalism?
Afterword
Appendix One: Timeline of the Careers of Disraeli and Gladstone
Appendix Two: Historian Biographies
Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
It is the object of this book to trace the often sharply differing perspectives historians have formed with regard to the key incidents in the careers of the two foremost politicians of the Victorian age - William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. As such, it is a work of synthesis. It seeks to juxtapose the various interpretations of events historians have advocated, rather than arrive at settled conclusions of its own. To aim for any kind of final verdict upon the debates under review would not merely be presumptuous but also subvert the book s entire raison d tre. For it is the contention of this study, and of the wider series of which it forms part, that history is a continually evolving subject in which finality is not to be looked for. Every generation poses new questions, or reformulates answers to old ones, and there can be no end to this process. It is this very fluidity and contestability of key historical doctrines that gives the subject its perennial attraction and ensures that every student must confront the issues for themselves, and weigh up the sometimes bewildering array of theories and explanations, so as to come to their own conclusions: realizing, full well, that their own judgement can never be anything other than provisional and that new insights and discoveries will be made that will call for the matter to be re-evaluated by historians. If this book encourages the student to relish the interplay of argument and debate that makes up modern history, and helps them steer their way through the sometimes perplexing world of Victorian politics, then it will have achieved its purpose. To bring more forcibly before the reader the fact that written history is generated by actual historians operating within a particular social and intellectual context, a brief r sum of the career of the chief historians cited is included as an appendix.
Ian St John
Haberdashers Aske s School, Elstree
Chapter 1
GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI TO 1851
Outline of Events
The opening of the 1840s saw William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli sitting together on the Tory benches and anticipating the fall of Lord Melbourne s Whig government. It was a brief moment of convergence. Their journeys to Westminster could not have been more different. Where Gladstone had left his mercantile home in Liverpool to attend Eton in 1821, proceeding from there to Oxford and then the House of Commons in 1833 at the age of 23, Disraeli, the baptized son of a literary Jew, had attended neither public school nor university, and had to struggle with debts and public disdain before finally securing a seat in 1837, at the age of 33. From 1841 their careers diverged again. While Gladstone became vice president of the Board of Trade in Robert Peel s Conservative administration, Disraeli languished sulkily on the backbenches. Momentous consequences followed from this. Gladstone, who in the 1830s had made his name as a High Church Anglican bent on raising the Christian tone of political life, now metamorphosed into an accomplished administrator, working closely with Peel to make Britain a land of free trade. Disraeli, by contrast, moved into a position of ever-more barbed criticism of Peelite Conservatism, which he branded an organised hypocrisy . In 1845 these divergent trajectories collided with a crash that reverberated through the nineteenth century. As famine consumed Ireland, Peel decided to break with established Tory policy and scrap the duty on imported corn - the Corn Laws. Where Gladstone rallied to Peel s side, Disraeli launched a series of scathing attacks from the backbenches that have never been equalled in effectiveness. In 1846 Peel pushed through Corn Law repeal, but in so doing broke the unity of the Conservative Party. Peel, together with around one hundred Members of Parliament (MPs) (including Gladstone) who had supported Corn Law repeal, now broke away from the Conservatives, leaving Disraeli as a prominent figure in the Protectionist Conservative rump. Never again would Gladstone and Disraeli serve in the same party. Here two controversies are considered: why did Gladstone abandon his inflexible High Tory politics for Peel s liberal reformism; and why did Disraeli denounce Peel so vehemently and champion opposition to Corn Law repeal?
1.1 Why Did Gladstone Go from High Tory to Reforming Peelite?
When it comes to Gladstone s early Toryism, nearly all historians take their lead from the characterization of him by his Whig opponent, Thomas Babbington Macaulay, as the rising hope of those stern unbending Tories . 1 What distinguished Gladstone from his fellow Tories was the alacrity with which he articulated his conservative vision through a body of doctrine concerning the theology of politics so abstract as to be unique among British politicians. In his 1838 The State in Its Relations with the Church , Gladstone argued that the individual found the meaning of his life according to the place into which he was born in the God-ordained structure of society. He entered the world not with a set of rights or freedoms, but with a set of duties. The morality of British society was guaranteed by the teachings of the Church of England, and it was the government s duty to follow the gui