The Impossible Office?: The History of the British Prime Minister
Cambridge University Press, 4/1/2021
EAN 9781316515327, ISBN10: 131651532X
Hardcover, 430 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Marking the third centenary of the office of Prime Minister, this book tells its extraordinary story, explaining how and why it has endured longer than any other democratic political office in world history. Sir Anthony Seldon, historian of Number 10 Downing Street, explores the lives and careers, loves and scandals, successes and failures, of all our great Prime Ministers. From Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger, to Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher, Seldon discusses which of our Prime Ministers have been most effective and why. He reveals the changing relationship between the Monarchy and the office of the Prime Minister in intimate detail, describing how the increasing power of the Prime Minister in becoming leader of Britain coincided with the steadily falling influence of the Monarchy. This book celebrates the humanity and frailty, work and achievement, of these 55 remarkable individuals, who averted revolution and civil war, leading the country through times of peace, crisis and war.
Preface
1. The Bookend Prime Ministers
Walpole and Johnson
2. A Country Transformed, 1721–2021
3. The Liminal Premiership
From the Saxons to 1806
4. The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2021
5. The Powers of the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
6. The Constraints on the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
7. The Falling Power of the Monarchy, 1660–2021
8. The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Secretary, 1782–2021
9. The Rise, and Rise of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2021
10. The Impossible Office
The Prime Minister by 2021.