Politics without Democracy: England 1815–1918

Politics Without Democracy provides an entertaining and highly original view of how Britain made a peaceful transition to representative democracy – a change characterized in other countries by convulsive and bloody civil strife. Professor Bentley takes the reader into the minds of the politicians of the day, men such as Wellington, Peel, Disraeli, Salisbury and Asquith, as they and their colleagues did their best to control, manipulate (and often retard) the onset of "democracy". Combining a deep personal knowledge of political history with the latest research he presents a highly original account of how Britain was transformed from a society governed by the landed gentry to one responsive to the pressures of the newly–industrialized masses.

Acknowledgements. Map: Some Places. Introduction to the First Edition. Introduction to the Second Edition. Part I: Pressure from Without, 1815–65: . 1. The Transformation of Party. 2. Renewal and Consolidation. 3. The Mechanics of Stability. Part II: Pressure from Within, 1865–1914: . 4. Occupying the Centre. 5. Conservative Ascendancy. 6. Breaking the Mould?. Appendix: Some People. Notes. Bibliography. Research Theses. Primary Sources. Further Reading. Index.

Michael Bentley is Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews.

"Refreshing, inspiring and elegant, there are few historians active today who could write at once as stimulatingly and as readably." Historical Journal "The challenge implicit in Bentley′s task is great. His response is witty, intellectually exciting, stylistically seductive, and itself stands as a challenge to broad perspectives on Victorian politics." Victorian Studies "Bentley writes with a wide fund of knowledge; his judgements are shrewd and always worth considering. Encrusted orthodoxies are often challenged and negative home truths are brought into the open." Times Higher Education Supplement