Professor Kenneth Morgan recommends Peace, ReformandLiberation
Professor Kenneth Morgan, biographer of Lloyd George, and valued guest at Society events has written a review of the recently published history of Liberal politics in Britain, edited by Robert Ingham and Duncan Brack and published by Biteback Books. Morgan’s review is almost as much of a review of Liberal history itself as it follows the twists and turns of Liberal fortunes and the struggles of the party’s chief personalities down the years – with David Lloyd George of course playing a key role in everything from politics to policy to scandal.
is the most recent publication from the Liberal Democrat History Group www.liberalhistory.org.uk but the chapters have been written by a range of practising historians, ensuring a scholarly approach but one which is easily accessible by the interested lay reader as well as academics and students who wish to keep up with the literature.
Morgan is not without his criticisms, pointing out the under-representation of intellectual as opposed to political power. To be fair to the History Group however, their previous book was the (Politico’s Publishing, 2007) which was designed to give readers a sense of the range, depth and diversity of liberal political thought, so detailed coverage of this intellectual heritage in the most recent volume can be forgiven. Morgan also feels the new book could have had more psephological analysis for the late-nineteenth century, though this is redressed by helpful detail on the locations of Liberal revival from the 1960s onwards.
Overall, however, Morgan’s verdict on is that “…all of the [chapters] are scholarly and buttressed by valuable footnotes and helpful bibliographies. This is an excellent book.”
You can read the whole of Professor Morgan’s review at: http://www.cercles.com/review/r56/Ingham.html
And if this tempts you to buy the book, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peace-Reform-Liberation-politics-1679-2011/dp/1849540438/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339173073&sr=1-1
