Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel

Author: Richard A. Gaunt

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2010-07-02

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0857716840

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Sir Robert Peel - paragon or pariah? Peel was the greatest statesman and political leader of mid-Victorian Britain, a titan of Conservative politics, whose legacy has inspired generations in his party and in British political life. In a career spanning forty years he held the greatest offices of state including Chief Secretary to Ireland, Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and was twice Prime Minister. He was the first acknowledged leader of the Conservative Party and the Founder of Modern Conservatism. Yet Peel's seemingly peerless reputation has never been secure. The Repeal of the Corn Laws split his party, his 'Peelite' supporters joined the Liberals and the Conservatives remained in opposition for thirty years. Richard Gaunt, drawing on a huge archive of state papers, contemporary writings including Peel's own Memoirs and the latest historiography, paints a convincing picture of Peel as an exponent of effective government in the modern industrial state and a calculating practitioner, supremely self-confident, who dominated both his Party and the House of Commons. Gaunt's revisionist life of Peel will be essential reading and the standard work for students and general readers interested in Conservative and mid-Victorian political history and historical biography.

Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel

Author: Terry Jenkins

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1998-10-30

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1349270083

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Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) is always remembered for three things: his creation of the Metropolitan Police, his principal role in the repeal of the Corn Laws and his status as founder of the modern Conservative Party. This is quite sufficient to make him the key statesman of the early Victorian period, but there were many other aspects of his personality and politics which make the study of his career uniquely useful for students of the period. In many ways, he can be seen as the archetypal link figure between the pre-Reform and post-Reform political worlds - embodying a strange mixture of reactionary Toryism and vigorous progressivism.