National Union Gleanings

This book explores the ways in which the emergence of the ‘new’ daily mass press of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries represented a hugely significant period in histories of both the British press and the British political system. Drawing on a parallel analysis of election-time newspaper content and archived political correspondence, the author argues that the ‘new dailies’ were a welcome and vibrant addition to the mass political culture that existed in Britain prior to World War 1. Chapters explore the ways in which the three ‘new dailies’ – Mail, Express, and Mirror – represented political news during the four general elections of the period; how their content intersected with, and became a part of, the mass consumer culture of pre-Great War Britain; and the differing ways political parties reacted to this new press, and what those reactions said about broader political attitudes towards the worth of ‘mass’ political communication. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of media history, British popular politics, journalism history, and media studies.

As the party that has won wars, reversed recessions and held prime ministerial power more times than any other, the Conservatives have played an undoubtedly crucial role in the shaping of contemporary British society. And yet, the leaders who have stood at its helm - from Sir Robert Peel to David Cameron, via Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher - have steered the party vessel with enormously varying degrees of success. With the widening of the franchise, revolutionary changes to social values and the growing ubiquity of the media, the requirements, techniques and goals of Conservative leadership since the party's nineteenth-century factional breakaway have been forced to evolve almost beyond recognition - and not all its leaders have managed to keep up. This comprehensive and enlightening book considers the attributes and achievements of each leader in the context of their respective time and diplomatic landscape, offering a compelling analytical framework by which they may be judged, detailed personal biographies from some of the country's foremost political critics, and exclusive interviews with former leaders themselves. An indispensable contribution to the study of party leadership, British Conservative Leaders is the essential guide to understanding British political history and governance through the prism of those who created it.

Bonar Law was a prominent opponent of Home Rule for Ireland; he also served the shortest term of any of Britain’s 20th century Prime Ministers. In 1922 he was responsible for ending the coalition.