Gladstone

Four times elected Prime Minister of Great Britain, William Ewart Gladstone was also the most influential Chancellor of the Exchequer of the 19th century. His political career covered the period of Britain's greatest power in the world, and the Liberal Party that he helped to create, and led until 1894, became a model for European political commentators throughout the 20th century. He has recently become the center of renewed interest and debate as both Thatcherite Conservatives and New Labour extol him as a model parliamentarian for today's politicians. With its thematic, rather than merely chronological, approach, this volume offers a new perspective on the quintessential Victorian whose ideas and leadership shaped the British political agenda at the end of the second millennium.