Lancaster Pamphlets

4 total works

The Great Reform Act of 1832

by Eric J. Evans

Published 17 March 1983

The 1832 Reform Act was a watershed in the history of modern Britain, profoundly affecting the composition of parliament and the course of all subsequent legislation.

This new edition of The Great Reform Act of 1832 extends and updates Eric J. Evans's classic account of the crucial political and economic issues and:

* highlights the travails of Toryism at the end of the 1820s
* clarifies complex questions of policy
* shows the connections between the Reform Act of 1832 and subsequent radical activity and reform legislation
* presents revised electoral statistics.

An accessible and stimulating guide to the student of modern political history, students of history and political history will find this invaluable to their studies.

William Pitt the Younger

by Eric J. Evans

Published 11 March 1999

William Pitt the Younger re-examines Pitt's career in the light of recent research and emphasizes that it should not be stereotyped as having a `reformist' phase in the years to 1793 and a `reactionary' phase thereafter.

His treatment includes explanation of:

* Pitt's rapid rise to power
* the importance of his relations with George III
* contemporary party politics, including his own description of himself as an `independent Whig'
* his administrative and financial reforms in the 1780s
* his foreign policy and war strategy
* his plans for assuring a satisfactory political union with Ireland and why they were frustrated.

This volume by Eric J. Evans, includes a complete historical background to the leader's political career and analyses his achievements. The author outlines Pitt's economic, domestic and foreign policy as well as detailing the changes in party politics and monarchy during the period.

Political Parties in Britain, 1783-1867

by Eric J. Evans

Published 31 October 1985

The theme of Professor Evan's book is the growth of a recognizable modern party system from the much looser and often family-based attachments of the eighteenth century. He examines the significance of the terms 'Whig' and 'Tory' in the later eighteenth century and the growth of a party aligment between 1788 and 1812 - a period in which war was a major factor in polarization. He discusses the years of Tory hegemony under Liverpool and the decline of the independent member, and then takes as his main themes the transition from Whigs to Liberals and from Tories to Conservatives in the period of 1830-46 which saw so much concern both with political reform and with social questions. He also examines the substantial growth of political organizations.
Professor Evans goes on to deal with the paradox that though the Tory party was shattered by the corn law crisis, the subsequent period to 1867 saw an increasing importance being attached to party allegiance. He also discusses the waning power of the Crown, the growing importance of general elections, and various areas of divergence between parties. Although the emphasis of this book is necessarily thematic, a firm sense of chronology is always maintained.

Sir Robert Peel

by Eric J. Evans

Published 19 September 1991

Drawing on the conclusions of recent research, this book takes a more critical view of Peel's political career than is conventionally offered. It argues that, although Peel was an efficient administrator and a dominant political leader in the 1830s and 1840s, he lacked both intellectual flexibility and political sensitivity. His arrogance and inflexibility rather than the inadequacies of his backbenchers, were largely responsible for the break-up of the Conservative party in 1846 and for its generation in the political wilderness thereafter.

Completing the trilogy of Great Victorian Prime Ministers in the Lancaster Pamphlet series, Professor Evans's reassessment of Peel's career sheds light both on a major political figure and, more widely, on party politics in the first half of the nineteenth century.