This book gives a full biography of the 14th Earl of Derby — the first British statesman to become prime minister three times, and the longest serving party leader in modern British party politics. This book revises the conventional view of Derby's personality, career, and beliefs, revealing him as a complex and influential figure, a man who abolished slavery in the British Empire, established a national system of education in Ireland, was a prominent advocate for the 1832 Reform Act, and oversaw the introduction of the Second Reform Act in 1867. In short, he played an instrumental role in dir ... More

This book gives a full biography of the 14th Earl of Derby — the first British statesman to become prime minister three times, and the longest serving party leader in modern British party politics. This book revises the conventional view of Derby's personality, career, and beliefs, revealing him as a complex and influential figure, a man who abolished slavery in the British Empire, established a national system of education in Ireland, was a prominent advocate for the 1832 Reform Act, and oversaw the introduction of the Second Reform Act in 1867. In short, he played an instrumental role in directing Britain's path through the historic challenges confronting the nation at a time of increasing political participation, industrial pre-eminence, urban growth, colonial expansion, religious controversy, and Irish tragedy. More generally, the volume modifies our understanding of 19th-century British party politics, the history of the Conservative party, and the nature of public life in the Victorian age, including other prominent figures such as Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, William Gladstone, and Benjamin Disraeli. Volume I takes the reader from Derby's early years through to the eve of his appointment as prime minister in the 1850s. Before this book, Derby was ‘the forgotten prime minister’, but this study fills this significant gap in the history of Victorian politics and society.