It is often assumed that politicians are swept along by global forces and influences, without the power - or the desire - to shape events. By contrast, this book is concerned with the way that cultural values, individual moral sentiments and politicians' interpretation of economic and other imperatives have helped to shape political values. Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and containing contributions by a series of prominent scholars, themes are developed through essays on recognisably important events and figures. Subjects include the policy ideas of W. E. Gladstone,...

It is often assumed that politicians are swept along by global forces and influences, without the power - or the desire - to shape events. By contrast, this book is concerned with the way that cultural values, individual moral sentiments and politicians' interpretation of economic and other imperatives have helped to shape political values. Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and containing contributions by a series of prominent scholars, themes are developed through essays on recognisably important events and figures. Subjects include the policy ideas of W. E. Gladstone,...