Peace, war and party politics examines the mid-Victorian Conservative Party's significant but overlooked role in British foreign policy and in contemporary debate about Britain's relations with Europe. The book considers the Conservatives' response - in opposition and government - to the tumultuous era of Napoleon III, the Crimean war and Italian unification. Within a clear chronological framework, it focuses on 'high' politics, and offers a detailed account of the party's foreign policy in government under its longest-serving but forgotten leader, the fourteenth Earl of Derby. It attaches...