Title: Aristocratic government in the Age of Reform
First published: 1990
Description: This book challenges the view that there was a smooth and inevitable progression towards liberalism in early nineteenth-century England. It examines the argument of the high whigs that the landed aristocracy still had a positive contribution to make to the welfare of the people. This argument gained significance as the laissez-faire state met with serious reverses in the 1830s and 1840s, when the bulk of the people proved unwilling to accept the "compromise" forged between the middle classes and other sections of the landed elite, and mass movements for political and social reform proliferated. Drawing on a rich variety of original sources, Mandler provides a vivid image of the high aristocracy at the peak of its wealth and power, and offers a provocative and unique analysis of how their rejection of middle-class manners helped them to govern Britain in two troubled decades of social unrest.
Subjects: Great Britain, Great Britain. Parliament, History, Liberal Party (Great Britain), Nobility, Politics and government, Reform, Whig Party (Great Britain), Great britain, politics and government, 19th century, Nobility, great britain, Crimean War, 1853-1856
Places: Great Britain
Time periods: 1830-1837, 1837-1901, 19th century
LC classification: DA550 .M34 1990