Robert C. Self - Böcker

This book is a collection of the diary letters of Austen Chamberlain from 1916 to 1937. These letters provide a valuable insight into the political life of one of the leading Conservative politicians of the inter-war period, and constitute a detailed record of Conservative and national politics at this time. They provide particularly valuable personal accounts of key events such as the negotiations of the Irish Treaty in 1921, the troubles leading to the Carlton Club revolt of October 1922, the Locarno agreements of 1925, the leadership crisis of 1930-1, and the backbench campaign against the German threat in the 1930s. Chamberlain felt free to express his most candid feelings and emotions in the privacy of these diary letters and, as a result, they throw much valuable light upon arguably one of the most misjudged politicians of the age, and one who has certainly been overshadowed by his more famous father and half-brother.

By the end of the nineteenth century, reform and development of the British electoral system had inaugurated a new style of mass politics which fundamentally transformed the face of the British party system. This book traces the evolution of recognisably modern parties from their roots in the 1880s through half a century of dramatic change in organisational structure, electoral competition and constitutional thought.In the House of Commons the Labour Party replaced the Liberals as the radical answer to the Conservative Party. In the country at large the complex web of Victorian social, regional and religious allegiances gave way to a cruder but more dynamic model of modern political loyalties.The transformation at Westminster and in the constituencies is surveyed in relation to changes to the franchise (including the vote for women), class consciousness, political organisation and doctrine. The comprehensive account explains the varying fortunes of the parties in the face of mass democracy, collectivism, the First World War and economic uncertainty. It also provides a critical insight into the debates and conflicts of interpretation which surround this pivotal period in British political history.