This study is an exercise in the history of political perception and opinion. It broke new ground in considering the decline of Liberalism through the eyes of Liberals themselves. By concentrating on what Liberal politicians said to one another and to their audience (public and private) a picture is built up of the frame of mind in which those responsible for guiding Liberalism faced a worsening world after 1914. The coming of the First World War was a critical element in forming that frame of mind; and the frame of mind was itself critical in deciding the fate of Liberalism in the post-war...

Lord Salisbury (1830-1903) is now a subject of intense historical attention. But while other scholars have chosen to present biographies of him, this important and accessible new study moves away from the conventional "life" and reconstructs the thought-world of late-Victorian Conservatives for the first time. In doing so it provides a new location within which Victorian politics and Salisbury himself can be evaluated. The book will therefore be essential reading for anyone interested in British political ideas.