商品詳細

Despite its worst electoral defeat since World War I the Conservative Party has enjoyed many more years in office than either its Labour or Liberal oppositions. In order to better understand its apparent rise and fall, Chris Wrigley provides a critical history of the Party. Wrigley covers its surge in popularity under Disraeli and Salisbury, its broad appeal in the interwar years, the "never had it so good" years of the postwar period, ideological shifts within the Party in the 1970s and 80s and the increasing disillusionment of Tory voters in the 1990s. In so doing Wrigley assesses the success of the party, its ability to adapt and the reasons for its appeal. Wrigley focuses on the key themes, such as the social status that the party conferred on the upwardly mobile, through the Freemasons and the Rotary and Lions clubs; and the network of support and patronage often attached to the monarchy. The cultures that have emerged around Conservatism are examined, such as Baldwin's patronage of rural England, the paternalist-landowner images of Macmillan and Douglas-Home and the upwardly-mobile meritocracy of Heath. Wrigley also examines the Conservative Party's drive for power, its willingness to discard unsuccessful leaders, and its perceived tendency to do whatever has been necessary to gain and maintain power.