Peace, War and Party Politics: The Conservatives and Europe, 1846-59

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 equal significance to domestic politics, and incorporates a provocative new analysis of Disraeli's role in internal tussles over policy, illuminating the roots of the power struggle he would later win against Derby's son in the 1870s.