The Age of Disraeli, 1868-1881: The Rise of Tory Democracy (A History of the Conservative Party Series)

The Conservative party has proved to be the most successful political party in Britain since Disraeli's Reform Act of 1867 established a 'democratic' franchise in the boroughs. Yet Disraeli's attempts to reconcile the elements of what later became known as 'Tory Democracy' was judged by most Conservatives at the time to be risky, and by some to be a disastrous betrayal of Conservatism. One of the latter, Lord Salisbury, bemusedly remarked in 1897 on the 'very strange history' of the Conservative party's survival and increasing political prosperity in the later nineteenth century.
This latest addition to the History of the Conservative Party is an attempt to write the first part of that 'very strange history'. (Richard Shannon is now at work on a sequel to the present volume taking the story through the Salisbury years to 1902.)
The Age of Disraeli is a rich and detailed study of the processes by which, through a curious combination of design and accident, the Conservative party managed to adapt to these new circumstances and accomodate [sic] the new interests that would secure its future fortunes. In particular, Richard Shannon shows how, behind Disraeli's vain attempt to preserve aristocratic politics in an age of popular franchise, the 'villa', or suburban, Conservatism was begining [sic] to take shape, that would carry the party triumphantly into the new era.
This is a major contribution to nineteenth-century political studies. As such it will be necessary reading for scholars and students of Victorian Britain; but it will also richly reward the general reader seriously interested in the origins of the modern political scene.