"Masterly ... A fascinating tour d'horizon of the Edwardian political scene. This must be a definitive account." – Professor Jane Ridley, author of George V: Never a Dull Moment "A tour de force, sympathetic in its treatment of the subject, eminently wise in its judgement and invariably fair in its verdicts. It purrs along like a Rolls-Royce engine." – Professor T. G. Otte, author of Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey "This brilliant book from Britain's most important constitutional historian upends the orthodoxy about the decadent Edwardians. A masterpiece of intelligent history, both forceful and subtle, which transforms how we view not just those most complex Edwardians but also our own equally complex times." – Professor Richard Aldous, author of The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli "Brilliant. Instantly the leading history of this turbulent and critical period in Britain's transition towards a modern democracy." – Professor Robert Blackburn, King's College London "Vernon Bogdanor has the habit of unearthing gems that have been missed by others. He does it again in this magisterial work on post-Gladstonian Britain by challenging some of the long-established myths about this period that deserve to be cast aside." – Professor Malcolm Murfett, King's College London "Professor Bogdanor argues with conviction and sometimes passion but always with judiciousness and in the light of deep reflection. The result is a masterly work which speaks to the politics of our own time." – Alvin Jackson, Richard Lodge Professor of History, University of Edinburgh "An extraordinary exploration of a political world whose dynamics continue to shape the future of liberal constitutionalism." – Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University "Crisp, authoritative and lucid." – Nicholas Owen, associate professor of politics, University of Oxford The turbulent years of 1895 to 1914 changed Britain's political landscape for ever. They saw a transition from aristocratic rule to mass politics and heralded a new agenda which still dominates today. The issues of the period – economic modernisation, social welfare and equality, secondary and technical education, a new role for Britain in the world – were complex and difficult. Indeed, they proved so thorny that despite the efforts of the Edwardians they remain among the most pressing problems we face in the twenty-first century. The period has often been seen as one of decadence, of the strange death of liberal Britain. In contrast, Vernon Bogdanor believes that the robustness of Britain's parliamentary and political institutions and her liberal political culture, with the commitment to rational debate and argument, were powerful enough to carry her through one of the most trying periods of her history and so make possible the remarkable survival of liberal Britain. In this wide-ranging and sometimes controversial survey, one of our pre-eminent political historians dispels the popular myths that have grown up about this critical period in Britain's story and argues that it set the scene for much that is laudable about our nation today.

A 2007 examination of the imperatives that have helped to shape political values.

This book focuses on the chaos that overtook England on the eve of the First World War. Dangerfield weaves together the three wild strands of the Irish Rebellion (the rebellion in Ulster), the Suffragette Movement and the Labour Movement to produce a vital picture of the state of mind and the most pressing social problems in England at the time. The country was preparing even then for its entrance into the twentieth century and total war.Dangerfield argues that between the death of Edward VII and the First World War there was a considerable hiatus in English history. He states that 1910 was a landmark year in English history. In 1910 the English spirit flared up, so that by the end of 1913 Liberal England was reduced to ashes. From these ashes, a new England emerged in which the true prewar Liberalism was supported by free trade, a majority in Parliament, the Ten Commandments, but the illusion of progress vanished. That extravagant behavior of the postwar decade, Dangerfield notes, had begun before the war. The war hastened everything - in politics, in economics, in behavior - but it started nothing.George Dangerfield's wonderfully written 1935 book has been extraordinarily influential. Scarcely any important analyst of modern Britain has failed to cite it and to make use of the understanding Dangerfield provides. This edition is timely, since the year 2010 has seen a definitive resurrection of Liberal power. Subsequent to the General Election of July 2010 the government of the United Kingdom has been in the hands of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. The Deputy Prime Minister is the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party - the direct successor of the old Liberal Party examined by Dangerfield. Five Liberal Democrat members of Parliament were appointed to the Cabinet and there are Liberal Democrat ministers in all governmental departments. After decades of absence from government power, Liberalism seems to be back with a vengeance.

This remarkable book, edited by one of the UK's leading political commentators, takes us on a deep dive into nearly 200 years of British political history through its most dramatic expression: the general election. The British general election is the linchpin of our liberal democracy, and its results are often fundamental to how we live. With the next general election on the horizon, now is the perfect time to consider those that came before. From the general election of 1830, in which electoral reform was the centrepiece, to the so-called Brexit election of 2019, Iain Dale delivers a showcase of all 50 general election campaigns, with an essay for each of them penned by key political writers, including John Curtice, Julia Langdon, Simon Heffer, Peter Snow, Sue Cameron, Vernon Bogdanor, Adam Boulton and many others. If you want to get to the heart of British politics and democracy, there is no greater guide than this meticulously researched, insightful and engaging collection.

Every thinking person knows that a great change is needed in our country. Will Hutton's passionate book shows how the right and left have gone wrong over the course of the last century – and how we can remake a better Britain. Britain's inability to invest in itself is at the heart of our problems. The malevolent thread linking the grievous errors of the last forty-five years is the attempt to create the utopia of free markets and a minimal state. The terrible consequences scar our country today. We need an alternative economic and political philosophy, especially if we are to ward off a nihilist populism. Two great traditions – ethical socialism and progressive liberalism – can be brought together to offer a different way forward. Hutton describes the views of their major thinkers, and their common vision of what he calls the 'We Society' – combining the 'We' and the 'I'. The two strands of thought both believe in the duty to treat people fairly in a capitalist system that, without guiderails, spirals into inequality, monopoly and exploitation. Out of this shared worldview came the great reforming Liberal government of 1906–14, supported by Labour MPs who'd been elected in industrial areas with Liberal backing. This alliance, Hutton argues, was the great opportunity of modern British history. It was destroyed by the First World War. In 1945 a Labour government, informed by great Liberal intellectuals like Keynes and Beveridge, showed once again what can be achieved when the two progressive strands fuse. Since then, our deeply unfair electoral system has allowed Conservatives to dominate government and commit a long series of great, avoidable errors. The Labour Party, fatally divided between socialist purity and timid pragmatism, must rediscover the ingredients that made for the success of the great reforming governments of the twentieth century. This failure to uphold the 'We Society' has betrayed Britain. Capitalism must be repurposed to work for the common good. And our degraded democracy, the necessary means for such change, must be reformed. Hutton's proposals are inspiring and rooted in values held by the overwhelming majority of us. Above all, they are achievable.

Michael Freeden explores the concept of liberalism, one of the longest-standing and central political theories and ideologies. Combining a variety of approaches, he distinguishes between liberalism as a political movement, as a system of ideas, and as a series of ethical and philosophical principles.

The last decade has seen radical changes in the way we are governed. Reforms such as the Human Rights Act and devolution have led to the replacement of one constitutional order by another. This book is the first to describe and analyse Britain's new constitution, asking why it was that the old system, seemingly hallowed by time, came under challenge, and why it is being replaced. The Human Rights Act and the devolution legislation have the character of fundamental law. They in practice limit the rights of Westminster as a sovereign parliament, and establish a constitution which is quasi-federal in nature. The old constitution emphasised the sovereignty of Parliament. The new constitution, by contrast, emphasises the separation of powers, both territorially and at the centre of government. The aim of constitutional reformers has been to improve the quality of government. But the main weakness of the new constitution is that it does little to secure more popular involvement in politics. We are in the process of becoming a constitutional state, but not a popular constitutional state. The next phase of constitutional reform, therefore, is likely to involve the creation of new forms of democratic engagement, so that our constitutional forms come to be more congruent with the social and political forces of the age. The end-point of this piecemeal process might well be a fully codified or written constitution which declares that power stems not from the Queen-in Parliament, but, instead, as in so many constitutions, from `We, the People'. The old British constitution was analysed by Bagehot and Dicey. In this book Vernon Bogdanor charts the significance of what is coming to replace it. The expenses scandal shows up grave defects in the British constitution. Vernon Bogdanor shows how the constitution can be reformed and the political system opened up in`The New British Constitution'.

The original – and often continuing – sin of countries with a settler colonial past is their brutal treatment of indigenous peoples. This challenging legacy continues to confront modern liberal democracies ranging from the USA and Canada to Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Duncan Ivison’s book considers how these states can justly accommodate indigenous populations today. He shows how indigenous movements have gained prominence in the past decade, driving both domestic and international campaigns for change. He examines how the claims made by these movements challenge liberal conceptions of the state, rights, political community, identity and legitimacy. Interweaving a lucid introduction to the debates with his own original argument, he contends that we need to move beyond complaints about the ‘politics of identity’ and towards a more historically and theoretically nuanced liberalism better suited to our times. This book will be a key resource for students and scholars interested in political theory, historic injustice, Indigenous studies and the history of political thought.

The definitive, insider history of the often turbulent political relationship between the Liberals and Labour. Natural allies or fierce competitors? For the past century, Britain's two major centre-left parties have co-existed in sometimes harmonious but more often fraught duopoly, from the 1903 agreement that a prominent Liberal complained was 'nursing into life a serpent which would sting their party to death' to the 1976–77 pact that gave us the phrase 'turkeys voting for Christmas' and beyond, to the failed negotiations that led to the controversial 2010–15 Lib Dem–Conservative coalition. Charting 100 years of British political history, Serpents, Goats and Turkeys explores the formal and informal arrangements that have existed between the parties, covering electoral deals, support for minority governments, formal pacts and full coalitions. What have been the overlaps of policy and ideology, and where have the parties been most divided? What explains the periods of co-operation but also the unwillingness or inability to work together for any significant time? In the wake of the 2024 'Loveless Landslide', former coalition Cabinet minister David Laws also draws on unpublished records and private diaries from the past thirty years of Lib–Lab wrangling to consider the likely options in the event of a future hung parliament. Should the parties work together? Would they be able to? And what are the prospects for voting reform? The answers to such questions will have major implications for British democracy and the future of our politics.

The United Kingdom is weakening, and this book helps to explain why. Alvin Jackson examines the UK in the light of the experience of similar union states elsewhere, offering the first sustained comparative study across the long nineteenth century and beyond. The UK was not in fact the only self-styled 'united kingdom' of the time: Jackson argues strikingly and originally that Britain exported the idea of union through the advocacy or encouragement of other multinational united kingdoms at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The work is distinctive in its geographical breadth. Jackson draws together the histories of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England and explores the links between them and Sweden-Norway, the United Netherlands, Austria-Hungary and the United Canadas - and many other polities across the globe. United Kingdoms looks too at the institutions and agencies affecting the condition of union - from monarchy, aristocracy, and religion through to class, money, and violence. Jackson offers new overarching arguments about the origins, survival, and fall of all union states, and in doing so, sheds new light on the particular history, condition, and fate of the UK.