Description
A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year. The recent political chaos enfolding Downing Street provides the framing for the extraordinary story of the office of Prime Minister, and how and why it has endured longer than any other democratic political office in world history. Sir Anthony Seldon, historian of Number 10, explores the lives and careers, crises and scandals, and successes and failures of our great Prime Ministers from Robert Walpole to Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher, up to the recent churn of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Seldon discusses which of our PMs have been most effective and why, as well as probing the changing relationship between the Monarchy and the Prime Minister in intimate detail. A celebration of the humanity, frailty, work and achievements of 57 remarkable individuals who averted revolution and civil war, leading the country through times of peace, crisis and war.
Table of Contents
Preface; Note on the revised edition; 1. The 300th Anniversary Bookend Prime Ministers: Walpole and Johnson; 2. A Country Transformed, 1721–2024; 3. The Liminal Premiership: From the Saxons to 1806; 4. The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2024; 5. The Powers and Resources of the Prime Minister, 1721–2024; 6. The Constraints on the Prime Minister, 1721–2024; 7. The Eclipse of the Monarchy, 1660–2024; 8. The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Secretary, 1782–2024; 9. The Rise, and Rise, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2024; 10. The Impossible Office? The Prime Minister by 2024.
